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After School

DOMESTICATED
ANIMALS AND PLANTS

A BRIEF TREATISE UPON THE ORIGIN AND

DEVELOPMENT OF DOMESTICATED RACES

WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO THE

METHODS OF IMPROVEMENT

E. DAVENPORT, M.Agr., LL.D.

PROFESSOR OF THREMMATOLOGY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS

DEAN OF THE COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURE

DIRECTOR OF THE AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION

GINN AND COMPANY

BOSTON . NEW YORK • CHICAGO • LONDON

ENTERED AT STATIONERS' HALL

310.9

W^t iatftengum Drcgg

GINN AND COMPANY' PRO-
PRIETORS • BOSTON • U.S.A.

PREFACE

Soon after the appearance of "Principles of Breeding" as
a college textbook, numerous letters came to both the author
and the publishers, suggesting a volume along similar lines, but
less technical in treatment and better adapted to the needs of
high and normal schools, and appealing more specifically to the
general student.

These suggestions, together with the growing interest in agri-
culture both as an occupation and as a subject for instruction
in schools of various grades, encouraged the production of the
present volume, which runs along the same general lines as
" Principles of Breeding," except that more information is
afforded as to the origin of domesticated races and the source
of the materials out of which they have been formed, and less
space is devoted to function and to the more philosophic treat-
ment of variation and heredity.

More attention is given also to the general subjects of natural
selection and the survival of the fittest as shown in the way of
the wild, — subjects of importance to the high-school student
as affording the foundation principles for improvement, and
also as contributing to a more rational understanding of the
general principles of evolution than commonly exists in the
popular mind.

An incidental purpose has been to insure the student of the
secondary school an acquaintance with the essential facts of re-
production as illustrated in plant life, and with the foundation
principles in heredity, especially in degeneracy and crime, as
illustrated in regression tables and the law of ancestral heredity.
If the author has been at all successful at this point, the student
will derive indirectly and by inference, through this study of

iii

248595

IV DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS

animals and plants, a certain knowledge of human relations which
in all likelihood he would be unable to secure by the method of
direct instruction, and yet which all thinking people need to
possess, not only for their own protection, but for the intelligent
interpretation of public affairs along sociological lines.

After all, the main purpose of the book and the main hope
of the writer is to interest the student in affairs of the farm,
and to enlist on the part of high schools the same interest in
the teaching of agriculture and the preparation for the affairs of
country life as is now exercised in the teaching of other sub-
jects and the preparation for other phases of life. Wherever this
new departure has been made it has been found that the educa-
tional value of subjects drawn from real life is surprisingly great,
and the social and economic results are beyond computation.
The hope to help this work forward has been, perhaps, the chief
inspiration in the preparation of the following pages.

EUGENE DAVENPORT
University of Illinois
Urbana

TO THE TEACHER

This book is so arranged as to be adapted either to a brief
or to a more extended course of study, a double purpose which
is accomphshed by dividing the subject matter into two parts.

Part I may be taken alone, constituting a brief course covering
the essential principles that are fundamental to an understanding
of hereditary transmission and of the business of plant and
animal improvement.

Part II can be employed either as additional text or as refer-
ence matter, at the option of the teacher, and depending upon
the time that is available.

In any case, whatever use is made of Part II, either as text
or reference, it should be in connection with Part I, and not as
succeeding it ; that is to say. Part 1 1 should be taken in con-
nection with or immediately following the first three chapters
of Part I, and this use of Part II is highly recommended, be-
cause here, is a collection of information, not commonly avail-
able, that throws light not only upon the sources of material
out of which domesticated races have been made, but also upon
many of the essential steps in improvement.

The author is especially anxious that the suggestions and ex-
ercises offered at the close of the chapters be accepted and fol-
lowed. Each topic affords material full of interesting and
profitable study, always from the standpoint of utility; and if
the students will make some independent studies of this kind,
they will be doubly repaid not only in the wealth of informa-
tion accumulated, but in the experience gained in independent
methods of study.

With the information afforded in the Appendix the teacher
will be able to introduce the subject of stock judging. This in-
troduction should be made early and continued throughout the

vi • DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS

study of the text. Almost any neighborhood will afford speci-
mens entirely suitable for this purpose.

A glossary of terms will be found convenient in connection
with both text and reference reading.

More explicitly, the purpose of the first three chapters is to
bring out the way in which our domesticated races came among
us, and our dependence upon their services. In this connection
and at this point should come as much as possible of the detailed
study of separate species as given in Part II.

The intent of the writer at this point is fourfold : first, to
arouse interest in the field which affords the subject matter of
the real discussion ; second, to bring together a body of knowl-
edge about domesticated animals and plants on which the student
may rely, making it possible for other chapters to be less con-
crete and more abstract ; third, to connect that body of knowledge
with the zoolog}^ and the botany of the high school ; fourth, to
give the student some acquaintance with the behavior of ani-
mals and plants both in a state of nature and when undergoing
domestication.

Chapters V and VI are designed not only to bring out the
power of selection, but also to give the student some working
knowledge of the complicated manner in which it operates in
nature. Both error and bad science abound through the failure
to distinguish between the facts of nature and the poetic license
that is often employed by writers who choose nature subjects as
means of teaching human truths. This kind of anthropomor-
phism we may wink at, if we understand what is meant when
animals are made to talk and trees and flowers to think ; but we
cannot forgive that kind of pseudoscience wherein, though the
purpose of the writer is plainly to teach the facts of nature, yet
the facts are either badly distorted or incompletely conveyed.

In Chapter VII the distinct purpose is to draw the attention
away from the animal or plant as an individual and direct it to
the more or less independent units of which it is composed.
A train of cars seen at a distance looks like a single unit, but

TO THE TEACHER vii

when more closely examined it is found to consist not only of
engine and of separate cars, but also of wheel and axle, brake
and drawbar. The whole is actuated by the energy of the coal and
controlled by intelligence, acting through steam and compressed
air, by means of lever brake and bell cord.

Chapter VIII introduces a brief study of the variability of a
single character, and it serves not only to fix conceptions as to
type, but as an introduction to statistical methods of study now
much employed in the problems of breeding. This chapter will
afford material for an exceedingly valuable class of problems,
and its mastery is especially urged.

In Chapter IX the attempt is made to convey the essential
facts of reproduction and lay the foundation for the study of
heredity through the medium of the plant. The hope is that
here and in Chapters X and XI more is taught by inference
than is taught directly. It has been a secondary aim of the
author to convey knowledge and make impressions that are
applicable to certain human relations as well as to the subject
in hand, but which from the nature of the case cannot be
conveyed by the direct method.

Chapters XI and XII are designed to teach rational notions
of descent and to correct the prevalent notion that heredity in
some way fails unless the offspring is a duplicate of the parent.
The old dogma that like begets like, and that the offspring is
like the parent, is modified to read, '' The offspring is like the
parentage," and the succeeding chapter deals with the distri-
bution of hereditary family qualities through the various mem-
bers of the back ancestry. It is hoped that the careful study of
these chapters will prepare the student for the real behavior of
characters in transmission, and will enable him to comprehend
both regression and progression, as well as reversion and de-
generacy. It will also serve to show that transmission and
heredity are complicated, not simple, facts.

Chapter XIV discusses the relative influences of heredity and
environment, a discussion that is useful from the standpoint

viii DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS

of breeding, and even more so from the standpoint of human
experience, particularly when we take into account the popular
confusion of mind on these two points. The average student,
noting the powerful influence of environment in the develop-
ment of inherited tendencies, is likely not to fully realize that
the environment is powerless except when the possibilities are
presented by heredity. A study of this chapter should help to
clear the mind of the student on this point.

Chapter XV is designed to acquaint the student with some
of the practical facts and problems connected with the actual
improvement of animals, and is frankly admitted as designed
to stimulate interest in grading.

Chapter XVI, dealing with plants, is intended to make the
methods of improvement still more familiar and to stimulate a
desire to take a hand in its trial, which, if seriously undertaken,
will be found not only interesting but highly educative.

Chapters XVII-XXI deal with the origin of domesticated
races, and are designed as supplementary text or as reference
matter, according to the needs of the school.

Any good high school may undertake something definite in
the way of animal and plant studies with reference to practical
improvement. The principles laid down in the text and the dis-
cussion are ample to enable it to do so, if teacher and pupil
alike are so disposed, and the school may, if it will, become a
force in the neighborhood.

First of all, it should have a little land on which at least a
collection of common plants may be studied. A vacant lot in
the city or a corner of a field in the country will answer, but a
definite piece of land near the school, set aside for the purpose,
is more desirable than either.

With the growing interest in agriculture, the best schools are
being provided not with a farm which they do not need, but
with a field of five to ten acres for experimental and demon-
stration purposes, which they do need. This work may well
occupy a place in such a field.

TO THE TEACHER ix

At the least let the school study variability. This may be
done advantageously with four classes of cultivated plants,
namely, flowers, garden vegetables, small fruits, and farm crops.

Of the first, pansies, petunias, sweet peas, and hollyhocks are
well adapted to the purposes ; of vegetables, the best are pota-
toes and squashes; of small fruits, strawberries and raspberries;
and of farm crops, none is better than corn, though wheat, oats,
timothy, and clover all exhibit pronounced variations.

In some of these cases variability may be conveniently in-
creased by crossing, as with the sweet pea, hollyhock, squash,
and corn ; and in the potato and strawberry an endless supply
of new strains may be had by planting the seeds.

If at all possible, this study of variability should be accompanied
by attempts at improvement, which is especially easy with flowers
and not at all impossible with such crops as potatoes and corn.

Large animals are, for the most part, out of reach of the
operations of the school, except as it can draw upon the farm
animals of the neighborhood, which everywhere afford material
practically unlimited, both in numbers and variety.

There is no more favorable material for study, however, than
chickens, and a small poultry plant is entirely feasible and in
every way desirable in connection with the school.

It is fundamental that some one be definitely charged with
the responsibility and care of any and all plants and animals
kept for school purposes. This responsibility and care may
properly devolve upon the same party who cares for the
building and the grounds.

It may seem to some that to do work of this sort, and to study
matters of this kind, is not the proper function of the school,
and that its advocacy is a passing fancy. To such, let the author
say that a new era is upon us, — an era in which at least a por-
tion of the time and energy of the schools must be devoted to
useful things, and to none more properly than to the industry
of agriculture, which directly engages the lives of one third of
our population and provides food for all the people.

CONTENTS

PART I

THE MEANING OF DOMESTICATED RACES AND THE
MANNER OF THEIR IMPROVEMENT

CHAPTER PAGE

I. The Dependence of Man upon Domesticated Animals

AND Plants 3

Animals and plants as sources of food — As sources of cloth-
ing— As sources of shelter — Vegetable products as sources
of heat and light — Dependence of man upon animal labor —
Animals a means of recreation — Animals and plants as sources
of raw material for manufacturing purposes — Medicinal prop-
erties of animals and plants — The business of farming

II. Domesticated Races originated in the Wild ... 11

Domesticated races Vary — Creation not yet finished — Most
domesticated races have close relatives in the wild — Domesti-
cated species existed first in the wild — Species change in domes-
tication— Improvement sometimes slight — Domestication a
gradual process — How the history of domestication is known

— Not always able to identify the original — Distinction between
feral and wild

III. How Animals and Plants came to be Domesticated 20

Domestication the result of necessity — Need for help in the
hunt — Need for additional food — Need for clothing and shel-
ter— Need for labor — Domestication the first step in civiliza-
tion — The civilizing effect of slavery — What animals have
done for us — Unused materials — Lost possibilities — Domes-
tication a gradual process — Species that were domesticated

IV. Need of Improvement in Domesticated Animals

and Plants 35

Natural species not perfectly adjusted to our needs — Main-
tenance of animals costly — Further improvement needed —
Need of more economic service — Some individuals better
than others — Economic significance of differences in efficiency

— The fact of variability established — Variability in a single
character — Historical knowledge of original species needed

xii DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS

CHAPTER PAGE

V. The Way of the Wild 50

The astonishing abundance of life — The struggle for exist-
ence — Selective effect of the natural conditions — Competition
for food — Competition for room — Competition most severe
between individuals of the same species — Natural selection —
Survival of the fittest — The individual and the race — Signifi-
cance of numbers — Significance of vigor and length of life —
Significance of offensive and defensive weapons — Significance
of protective coloring and markings — Mimicry — Design in
nature — Causes of color in animals and plants

VI. Effect of Natural Selection 83

Natural selection means progressive development — Effect of
selection upon the individual — Selection good for the species
that can endure it — Selection fatal to a race that cannot en-
dure its hardships — Interest of the individual and the race
not identical — A close fit between a species and its environ-
ment is inevitable — Apparent exceptions due to absence of
severe selection — Adaptation not necessarily perfect — Our
standards of selection differ from those of nature — Not all the
results of natural selection are useful to us — Our standards
often require much readjustment of domesticated species —
Natural selection always at work — Power of selection to
modify type

VII. Unit Characters 98

Unit of study — Species composed of definite characters —
Every individual possesses all the characters of the race —
Characters developed and characters latent — Characters
dominant and characters recessive — Correlation of characters
— Lost characters — New characters — Characters apd unit
characters

VIII. Variability of a Single Character 105

Critical study of a single character — Types — Plotting the
frequency curve — The mean — The typical individual — Vari-
ability or deviation from type — Average deviation — Standard
deviation — Coefficient of variability — Suggestions as to tak-
ing measurements — Suggestions as to grouping — Sugges-
tions as to numbers — Suggestions as to taking samples —
Advantages of statistical studies

IX. How Characters are Transmitted 121

Every species of its own kind — The machinery of transmis-
sion— Fertilization — Fertilization in general — The material
transmitted — Chromosomes — Development, or growth and
differentiation — Termination to growth

X. When Development goes Wrong 130

Differentiation with development — Underdevelopment, or
dwarfing — Overdevelopment, or giants — Arrested develop-
ment of a single character or part — Overdevelopment of a
single part — Doubling of parts — Fusing of parts — When
unit characters get misplaced — Abnormal growths

CONTENTS Xlll

CHAPTER

PAGE

XL How Characters behave in Transmission . . . .141

Characters tend to combine in definite mathematical propor-
tions — Characters that do not blend — Mendel's law of
hybrids — Dominant and recessive characters — Pure races
may spring from crossing — Very few individuals pure — A
second method of improvement — Improvement by hybridiza-
tion complicated — Mutation and mutants — Origin of new
and improved strains

XII. How THE Offspring compares with the Parent,

or Descent with Modification 154

The complex nature of heredity — The offspring not like the
parent — Mediocrity the common lot, whatever the parentage ;
regression — Some offspring better and some worse than their
parents — The exceptional parent and his offspring — Pro-
gression — The exceptional offspring and his parent — Rever-
sion — Degeneracy

XIII. The Law of Ancestral Heredity 166

The extent to which the offspring resembles the parent and
the extent to which he resembles more remote ancestors —
Chance of resembling a particular individual ancestor — The
individual a composite — The number " two "

XIV. Heredity and Envijionment 171

Mistaken estimate of environment — All the characters of the
race, both good and bad, are transmitted to the individual by
his parentage — The function of environment is to assist or
to hinder in development — Environment does not add unit
characters — Modifications due to environment

XV. Systematic Improvement of Animals . . . . .178

Origin of the " pure bred " — Pedigree registers — Advanced
registry — Unregistered stock and scrubs — Systems of breed-
ing— Source of sires — Herd improvement and breed im-
provement— Rational improvement — Choosing the breed —
Breed differences slight — Market classes and grades —
Knowledge of market requirements needful

XVI. Systematic Improvement of Plants 198

Improvement by selection — Crossing to produce new varieties

— Application of Mendel's law in crossing — Separation of the
desired character — Behavior of the recessive — Behavior of
the dominant — When more than two characters are involved

— Systems of planting — Records

xiv DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS

PART II
THE ORIGIN OF DOMESTICATED RACES

CHAPTER PAGE

XVII. Origin of Domesticated Animals 207

Domesticated mammals — The dog — The horse — The ass

— The ox — The sheep — The goat — The pig — The cat —
Domesticated birds — The hen — The goose — The duck —
The turkey — The peacock — The swan — The guinea fowl

— Additional races and semidomestication — Unwelcome
domestication

XVIIL Origin of Cultivated Grains and Grasses . . 241

Cultivated plants, like domesticated animals, originated in the
wild — Wheat — Barley — Indian Corn — Oats — Rye — Rice

— Sorghum — Sugar Cane — Millet — Buckwheat — Timothy

— Blue Grass — Redtop — Orchard grass — The Festucas —
Miscellaneous grasses

XIX. Origin of the Cultivated Legumes 257

Clover — Alfalfa — The lentil — The bean — The pea — The
vetch — The lupine — The soybean — The cowpea

XX. Origin of Cultivated Fruits 267

The apple — The pear — ^ The plum. — The sour cherry — The
peach — The apricot — The orange and the lemon — The
banana — The pineapple — The grape — The strawberry —
The raspberry — The blackberry — The melon — Miscella-
neous fruits

XXI. Origin of P'arm and Garden Vegetables and

Miscellaneous Plants 285

The potato — The sweet potato — Miscellaneous tubers —
Edible Roots — The onion — The beet — Manioc, or mandioca

— The turnip — Miscellaneous roots — Vegetables cultivated
for their foliage — Cabbage — Celery — Lettuce — Asparagus

— Plants cultivated for beverage — Coffee — Tea — Mate —
Plants grown for sedative effect — The poppy — Coca — The
betel — Tobacco — Fiber plants — Cotton — Flax — Hemp —
Ornamental plants — Weeds

Appendix 301

Glossary 312

Index 3'7

DOMESTICATED
ANIMALS AND PLANTS

PART I

THE MEANING OF DOMESTICATED RACES AND
THE MANNER OF THEIR IMPROVEMENT

CHAPTER I

THE DEPENDENCE OF MAN UPON DOMESTICATED ANIMALS
AND PLANTS

Animals and plants as sources of food • As sources of clothing • As sources
of shelter • Vegetable products as sources of heat and light • Dependence of
man upon animal labor • Animals a means of recreation • Animals and plants
as sources of raw material for manufacturing purposes • Medicinal properties
of animals and plants • The business of farming

Few realize the extent of our dependence upon the plant and
animal life about us, and the variety of ways in which domesti-
cated animals and cultivated plants have been made to serve the
interests and forward the plans and purposes of man.

Animals and plants as sources of food. Aside from air and
water there is no article of food, common or uncommon, that
does not come directly from the animal or the plant.

Meat, milk, and eggs, the three standard animal foods, repre-
sent the body and its products. Bread, however made, represents
the starchy seeds of certain plants, and edible oils are invariably
of either plant or animal origin.

To these staples we add, for luxury and for health, a great
variety of fruits and vegetables, not to mention sweets, but they
all arise from plant life somewhere in the world.

Most of the food plants are cultivated, and most of the
animals are domesticated. The savage may live by the hunt,
but it is one of the first evidences of civilization that a race

4.(; ;^ ^i/TOMESTICAT,ED. ANIMALS AND PLANTS

provides an ample and assured food supply in its domesticated
animals and cultivated crops.

To be sure, a certain amount of meat still comes from game
like the deer and the moose, but the proportion is small and is
growing smaller every year. The pioneer, like the Indians, de-
pended largely on the hunt, but the buffalo is extinct and the
game animals generally are restricted to the protected preserves
where they linger only by virtue of stringent laws.

Fish have been strictly undomesticated in the past, but now
all the promising rivers and lakes are systematically " stocked,"
so that even these lowest of all food animals are almost half
domesticated, in that they are systematically cared for. Any
way we study the problem we always arrive at the same conclu-
sion, namely, that we are absolutely dependent for food upon
the products of plant and animal life.

Animals and plants as sources of clothing. Primitive man
clothes himself in skins, like the Eskimo, if he needs their
warmth, or in grasses, like the Fiji islander, if he does not.
Civilized man, however, refining upon savage customs, weaves
a cloth out of the fiber of the pelt or of the leaf, and cuts him-
self garments that fit the body and lend themselves to its move-
ments. In this way the wool of the sheep and the fiber of the
cotton and the flax furnish the material out of which the world
clothes itself.

Aside from furs, and many of these come from lambs and
from cats, we draw our clothing supply from animals and plants
living under the direct management and control of man, that
is, domesticated. The wool of the sheep, the fur of the vicufla,
and the hair of the llama and the alpaca are all body coverings
shorn for spinning. The fiber of cotton and of flax represent
two of our principal crops the world over, and the silk that is
spun by the insignificant worm represents an industry involving
thousands of people, millions of worms, and acres of mulberry
trees. In clothing, therefore, as in food, our supply is mainly
drawn from domesticated races.

THE DEPENDENCE OF MAN 5

Animals and plants as sources of shelter. Such of our ances-
tors as were fortunate enough to inhabit mountain districts hved
in caves, but as the more venturesome and ambitious sought
their fortunes on the plains, where civiHzation develops, they
made themselves tents or tabernacles of the skins of animals
and afterward of woven cloth. Only later were shelters built of
lumber, bricks, or stone. Our own race has developed its civili-
zation in habitations made of wood, but with the passing of the
years and the destruction of natural forests, we shall rnore and
more build of indestructible materials not the product of either
plant or animal life.

For our furniture and our furnishings, however, we shall
always be dependent upon both, and we cannot say, even in
this, that man is independent of the humbler life about him.
Though in the past his draft for building materials has been
upon natural supplies and not upon domesticated races, yet the
attention that is now being given to forestry indicates the neces-
sity of protecting and renewing the timber supplies in ways that
amount almost to a domestication of our valuable woods.

Vegetable products as sources of heat and light. For ages
wood has warmed the body of suffering man, cooked his food,
and lifted the shadows from his soul. Not until after the open-
ing of the twelfth century ^ did we begin to draw upon our coal
deposits, and not until recent years have petroleum and natural
gas ranked as heat- and light-producing materials.

But whether wood or coal, petroleum or gas, all reduce to the
^ame ultimate basis, — vegetable growth and the carbon of the
atmosphere harnessed by the green of the leaf operating under
the energy of the sun.

None of these sources of heat is from cultivated plants, but
the world supply of coal, and therefore of petroleum and gas, is
limited, so that at no distant day we shall be obliged to secure
our heat either from the sun direct, from wood growing in

1 It is supposed that the first charter for mining coal was granted by
Henry III to Newcastle-on-Tyne, 1239.

6 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS

cultivated forests, or from alcohol produced by the starchy
grains and vegetables.

In early days the fat of animals or of plants served for illumi-
nation, but with petroleum they passed, probably forever, out of
use, and it is more than likely that in respect to illumination we
shall be independent of both animals and plants.

Dependence of man upon animal labor. To harness the ani-
mals and put them to work is one of the primitive instincts of

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Fig. I. The famous Percheron stallion Brilliant
After a painting by the great animal artist Rosa Bonheur

man, and a book would be required even to outline the thou-
sand ways in which man has been helped by his dumb com-
panions, and in which his future happiness inevitably rests upon
their labors.

It is the reindeer and the dog that make the polar regions
habitable. It was the ox that traveled the plains and developed
the Pacific coast in the days of '49. The last of the buffalo gave
their flesh to feed the workmen that laid the Union Pacific —
that first mechanical bond between the East and the West.

THE DEPENDENCE OF MAN 7

It is the horse that has fought the wars of the world and won
out human Hberty. Besides this, he has broken our prairies,
sown and harvested our grain, and delivered it to the markets of
the world. He has carried messages of victory and of sorrow, and
down to the time of Washington he constituted the fastest mode
of communication known, if we except only the carrier pigeon.

If all the animals of the world should die in a single day, the
disaster in respect to labor would hardly be second to that in

Fig. 2. " I helped to build the Pikes Peak Railroad." The burro and

the pack mule afford the best means of transportation over difficult

mountain trails

respect to food. We might perhaps turn vegetarian, but if man
should lose his animal servants, then he himself would at once
be reduced to a beast of burden in a thousand ways not com-
monly appreciated or even understood.

The camel and the pack mule carry civilization into regions
which would otherwise remain wilderness, and just as the burro
may be said to have built the Pikes Peak Railroad, so the
elephant and the water buffalo each has done and is doing its

8 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS

distinctive work, without which man would have failed to develop
his civilization at certain significant points.

Animals a means of recreation. Wholly aside from the sport
of hunting, our animal population contributes not a little to the
diversion and the recreation of man. The old-time tournament ^
and the later fox chase ministered to the pleasure sense of man,
as does the modern horse race. There is no enjoyment more
exhilarating than driving behind a spirited horse, unless it be
that primitive pleasure of riding ; and the training of intelligent
horses to the higher class of service is a business that rises
to the rank of a fine art.

Thousands of ponies contribute not only to the health of
children but also to their pleasure and development, both physi-
cal and mental, for no experience is better suited to stimulate
resourcefulness in the child than is the everyday management
of an animal of the horse kind.

The business of fancy breeding is a refining kind of enjoy-
ment that for sheer fascination has no superior. As the
clay in the hands of the potter, so is a flexible species in the
hand of the breeder, as is evidenced by a glance at what
has been done in the breeding of pigeons and of dogs (see
PP- 93-95)» and as will become evident as we proceed with the
study now in hand.

Animals and plants as sources of raw material for manufac-
turing purposes. Animals may be thought to afford but little
raw material for the manufacturer, but the wool and the skins,
the bones and the slaughterhouse refuse, all work up into
valuable material for factory consumption, providing endless
necessities and even luxuries, from the covering of our hands
and feet to brushes and combs, buttons and knife handles,
gelatin and glue.

Plants and plant products are nearly all submitted to some
process of manufacture before assuming forms suitable for the
uses of man, and this affords opportunity for the exercise of

1 See the story of " Ivanhoe."

THE DEPENDENCE OF MAN 9

unlimited employment and skill, not only in design but in
execution as well.

When we regard facts such as these and consider the mul-
titude of purposes to which wood is put, the use of pulp for
paper, the flouring of grains, the carding and spinning of vege-
table and animal fibers, then it is that we begin to realize how
generally and how fully our domesticated animals and plants
afford what might be called the raw materials of civilization.

Medicinal properties of animals and plants. It is not only in
health but also in disease that animals and plants serve our
needs. Nearly all medicinal preparations are from some species
of plant, and each has its characteristic action on some portion
or portions of the body or its functions.

Certain glands of animals, too, are coming to be much used
in the preparation of medicines. If the thyroid gland of the
child, for example, fails to develop, the mental faculties v/ill be
impaired; but the calamity can be averted by feeding the subject
with the thyroid substance of the sheep.

And so in countless ways our lives have come to be bound
up with those of the animals and plants that we cultivate, and
our ability to maintain our civilization and insure our continued
happiness will depend very largely upon the success with which
we can maintain these animal and plant assistants and cause
them to minister to our good.

The business of farming. The systematic and continued pro-
duction of domesticated animals and plants, insuring a perpetual
supply of their products, is the business of farming. Considered
from the individual standpoint, we may like it or not according
to our natural bent and our like or dislike of animals and the
handling of crops, but looked at from the racial and economic
standpoint, there is no more important work for the continued
welfare of man than that of maintaining a continuous supply of
plant and animal products.

Nor is this task a simple one. The supply must be ample
for an increasing population with increasing needs, although

lO DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS

plant production tends strongly to the deterioration of the soil.
Besides this, both animals and plants must be brought and kept
up to the highest standard of efficiency, and it is the purpose
of this book to discuss some of the principles involved in secur-
ing and maintaining the highest attainable service on the part
of both animals and plants ; in other words, their systematic
improvement from the standpoint of usefulness to man.

This being true, we cannot know too much about them, —
their nature, their history, and the significant details of their re-
production and development. Accordingly, first of all, attention
is invited to the source from which they have come down to us.

Summary. We are absolutely dependent upon plant and animal life for
food, clothing, and heat, and very largely so for light, shelter, labor, recrea-
tion, medicinal compounds, and the raw material for manufacture. In a very
large sense man has drafted into his service all other living things which
seem capable of ministering to his prosperity ; thus, if in no other way,
proving his superiority over all other created beings.

Exercisels. 1. Write essays showing what the horse has done and is
doing for man.

2. Write essays showing how we would be affected, and how we would
get on if we should suddenly be deprived of the cow.

3. What is the most useful domestic animal in your neighborhood,
and why?

4. What is the most important crop of the locality, and why ?

5. Calculate the value of all the animals of the United States and of your
own state, and express it not only in totals but on the per capita basis.

6. In the same way estimate the annual output of crops, and compare
with this the value of our exports.

7. Do the same for the animal products, meat, milk, and wool.

8 . Calculate the amount and value of the grain and hay consumed
annually by our domestic animals, and compare it to the cost of feeding our
human population.

Reference. Year-Book, United States Department of Agriculture.

CHAPTER II
DOMESTICATED RACES ORIGINATED IN THE WILD

Domesticated races vary • Creation not yet finished • Most domesticated races
have close relatives in the wild • Domesticated species existed first in the
wild • Species change in domestication • Improvement sometimes slight-
Domestication a gradual process • How the history of domestication is
known • Not always able to identify the original • Distinction between

feral and wild

Whence . came our domesticated animals and our cultivated
plants ? Were our horses, our cattle, our sheep, and our swine
created in the beginning as they are to-day, or have they de-
scended from other, older, and somewhat different races ?
Were they made especially for our benefit, or have we drafted
them into our service ?

Were our wheat, our corn, our clover and alfalfa, our apples
and vegetables, created for the particular delectation of man,
or have they been discovered and appropriated by him to meet
his special needs ?

Were they always as they are now in form and color and
quality, or have they been developed from preexisting species
and somewhat changed in the process ?

Domesticated races vary. The last question is easiest an-
swered. The domesticated races were not always what they
are to-day, for many have arisen within recent times and some
within the recollection of men yet living. For example, the
Shorthorn cattle were developed in England within the last
hundred and fifty years, and the trotting horse is an American
product developed since the Civil War.

The most common pig of the Mississippi valley is the Poland
China, which developed in the Miami valley as the Chester
White developed in Chester County, Pennsylvania.

12 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS

Wheat is very old, but corn is relatively new, and the variety
known as Riley's Favorite was produced by James Riley, still
living at Thornton, Indiana.

Grapes have been known since the earliest ages, but all the
varieties growing east of the Rockies have been developed
since the landing of the Pilgrim P'athers, and the most popu-
lar of all grapes — the Concord — originated within half a mile
of the old homes of Emerson and of Hawthorne, and close by
the litde brown house where Miss Alcott lived and wrote
''Little Women." Moreover, the writer has seen the original
vine still growing by the old home of its originator, Ephraim
Bell, as he has also seen the original stock from which all our
navel oranges have sprung.^

Creation not yet finished. Just as every torrential storm
brings down tons of rock and soil, changing permanently the
face of nature ; just as the rivers carry this '' drift " from the
uplands, extending the lowlands farther and farther into the sea ;
just as frost and flood combine to tear down the mountains and
wear away the hills, so are influences at work everywhere to
alter more or less permanently the character of the countless
species of plants and animals that inhabit the earth.

So the Creator is still at work, and not only the forces of
nature but man himself works with God in still further improv-
ing the earth and the living beings it everywhere supports. It
is well, then, that man shall learn all he can as to how to oper-
ate to the best advantage in discharging his part of the labor
of creation.

Most domesticated races have close relatives in the wild.
The most casual observer recognizes the wolf as a kind of first
cousin to the dog, and the jackal as a poor relation. Domestic
cattle belong certainly to the same general class of animals as
the bison and the water buffalo.

1 It should be understood that the peculiar kind of orange called the navel
has arisen at many different times and places in the world. Ours originated in
southern California.

DOMESTICATED RACES

Any zoological garden or traveling menagerie will show a
great variety of animals clearly catlike, and almost every moun-
tainous country has its native sheep of some kind.

The zebra and the quagga of the circus suggest the horse, and
the turkey of the New England forests not only resembles our
great Thanksgiving bird, but is known to be its direct progenitor.^

Fig. 3. The timber wolf a wild relative of the domestic dog. Specimens at
the National Park, Washington, D.C, Courtesy of the Superintendent

Among plants we have wild oats, timothy, and many kinds
of clover ; indeed, most of our pasture grasses are truly wild.
We have also wild strawberries, blackberries, and raspberries,
wild onions, parsnips, and carrots, and whichever way we turn
the domesticated animal and plant is found to have a gypsy
relative in the wild.

1 For further data on the turkey, see Part II, Chapter XVII.

14 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS

Domesticated species existed first in the wild. The plain
inference from all this is that domesticated races originated in
the wild. This conclusion is abundantly supported by a mass of
incontrovertible evidence too voluminous for full presentation
here, showing also that man has appropriated these wild species
and put them to his service from time to time as he has felt
the need. Some of this was done so long ago that the manner
of the domestication is lost in the dim and ancient past, and the
history of it must be read backwards if it is read at all ; but
some of it is so recent that the exact record exists both in
printed literature and in the recollection of men that still walk
and talk among us.

The more ancient races such as the dog and the horse, like
wheat and barley, date from a period long before recorded his-
tory, and more than likely before the invention of the art of
writing ; but on the other hand, the American wild grape that
clambers over the trees and shrubs of the eastern United States
is known to be the parent of all the cultivated varieties grown
east of the Rocky Mountains. In the same way most varieties
of plums trace straight to the thickets of eastern American
rivers. So again, the gooseberry and the currant, the blackberry
and the raspberry, in all their varieties have been developed
from wild races, and mostly within the last half century, just
as all the varieties of the rose have arisen from the common
wildling of the hedges and the hills. How this has been done
and the story of it will develop in the student's mind as we
come to inquire more specifically into the life history of the
separate domesticated species.

Species change in domestication. It is not to be assumed
that domesticated races are identical with their wild antece-
dents. On the contrary, in most cases, substantial improvement
has taken place in domestication, as will be seen whenever a
domesticated race is compared with its nearest wild relative.

There are many wild apples, but none so rich or so large
as the best products of our orchards. Most wild oranges are

DOMESTICATED RACES 1 5

insipid or bitter. One would have to look a long time to find
wild grapes equal to the cultivated sorts. No wild potato has
ever been found equal to the cultivated either in size or quality.

Fig. 4. American wild grape, parent of all cultivated varieties growing
east of the Rocky mountains

No wild sheep equals the Merino in fineness of fleece or the
Shropshire in quality of meat, and no wild animal of the cattle
kind was ever known to give as much milk as the domesti-
cated cow.

1 6 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS

Improvement sometimes slight. In a few cases this improve-
ment is far less pronounced than in others. For example, the
best wild strawberries and blackberries are undoubtedly equal in
flavor to the cultivated, though far inferior in productiveness
and in size. The Catawba grape was found wild in North Caro-
lina, practically identical with its present form, but it was the
only vine of its kind.

The fur-bearing animals, like most kinds of fish, have never
been domesticated ; indeed, it is an open question if man could
maintain artificial conditions that would preserve in captivity the
same quality of fur attained in the wild state.

Domestication a gradual process. Civilization has developed
not from one but from many centers, and many animals and
plants have been domesticated, not once, but many times.
Every '' woods boy " has had his pet " coon " or crow, and
every savage tribe it^ horde of dogs, each going to the wild
for what it wanted.

Some parts of the world were ahead of others in the process
of civilization and also in the business of domestication. While
our own ancestors were chasing the Auroch ^ in the wilds of
central Europe in Caesar's time or hunting the wild boar^ in
the jungles of Germany, Asia had developed races and civiliza-
tions that had risen, run their courses, disappeared, and been
forgotten, giving place to others. There, then, was probably the
earliest domestication. Asia is our largest continental area, with
the greatest diversity in soil, climate, and exposure. It is there-
fore richest in both animal and plant varieties, as it is oldest in
civilization ; and we are not surprised to learn that many of our
most useful species were here domesticated so long ago that it is
impossible to say when, how, or by whom it was accomplished.

Later than all this, however, and contemporaneous with the
culture that belonged to Greece and the glory that was Rome's,
the Indian of our own country was as wild as the buffalo and

1 The probable progenitor of most European breeds of cattle.

2 The wild parent of certain European breeds of pig.

DOMESTICATED RACES

the bear that he hunted or the turkey that our Puritan fore-
father tamed. When Demosthenes was developing his oratory,
and Alexander and Caesar were extending their dominions, the
Six Nations had probably not yet made the beginning of what
in time would undoubtedly have developed into an Indian civ-
ilization, had it not been interrupted and finally destroyed by
European discovery and invasion.

Within the recollection of men now living the Sandwich
Islanders were savages. Head-hunters and cannibals are not
quite extinct in the Pacific Islands, while in Africa men are
yet hunted like wild animals by their savage neighbors. Thus
savagery lingered even until our own time.

So it is that civilization is constantly springing up from new
centers, giving us the opportunity of studying the methods of
its beginning ; and so it is that the ways of primitive man are
well known and are made a part, not of our imagination, but of
authentic history. So it is that we arrive at conclusions not only
by inference and through relics of ancient peoples, but by actual
observation of what men do in the primitive state, — of the real
behavior of many and widely separated races that have for one
reason or another been belated in their start towards civilization.
In this way we are able to study the methods of domestication
at first-hand.

How the history of domestication is known. In the case of
all these peoples, however savage, some start has been made
toward domesticating at least a few wild animals, and it is by
putting together fragments such as these and adding the facts
of recorded history that the story of domestication may be
written almost if not quite from the beginning.

Even little matters throw great light upon such a history.
For example, the bones of animals that were hunted for food
during the stone age are left behind in great heaps, called
" kitchen middens," ^ while the bones of domesticated animals

1 Especially numerous in western Europe. Most of these long bones have
been split to get at the marrow.

1 8 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS

are often found buried with human remains, as would be likely
with special favorites. In those days, of course, animals were
not yet domesticated for food, but only to assist in the hunt, an
inference perfectly safe from the fact that most of the remains
in the middens are of deer and reindeer, even yet not domesti-
cated.i In all these various ways the history of domestication of
many if not most of our animals is well known, if not in detail,
at least in a general way.

Not always able to identify the original. However this may
be, and however confident we may feel as to the processes of
domestication, we often cannot speak with assurance of the
exact wild species from which each particular domestic animal
has been developed. We know that the ancestor was a wild
animal, but which one or ones of the many similar races that
must have existed in those remote times we have but scanty
means of knowing.

This is partly because, through breeding and care, all domes-
ticated races have been gready changed from their appearance
in the wild state, and partly because in very many cases the wild
original may itself have changed, or even, perhaps, long ceased
to exist anywhere on earth ; indeed, it looks sometimes as if j
domestication had been the principal if not the only means of|
saving some of our most valuable species from utter extinction
long ago.

Distinction between feral and wild. Until recent years im-
mense numbers of so-called wild cattle, and of wild horses as
well, roamed over our own western plains and over the pampas
of South America. Such animals are not truly wild, because
they do not represent an original stock, being merely the de-
scendants of the cattle and horses brought over by the Spanish
invaders, some of which escaped and '' ran wild." Finding
conditions favorable, such escaped specimens throve and freely
multiplied, ultimately stocking the plains with roving bands of

1 This statement may be questionable as to the reindeer, which is now
semidomesticated.

DOMESTICATED RACES 1 9

both cattle and horses, as truly wild in temperament as any
species that ever ranged the natural pastures.

Such descendants of escaped domesticated races, however,
are called "feral," to distinguish them from a truly aboriginal
stock, like the buffalo, that ranged our plains with our feral
horses. Many cultivated plants also freely revert to the wild in
unoccupied lands, but they are spoken of as having '' escaped "
from cultivation, so that the term "feral " is limited to animals.

Feral animals have most of the characters and appearance of
the domestic forms from which they spring, except in respect to
temperament, which is that of the truly wild, all of which consti-
tutes an additional argument for their origin in the wild.^

The next step is to see how it was that animals and plants
came to be domesticated and taken out of the wild for the
benefit of man.

Summary. Domesticated animals and cultivated plants originated and
existed for indefinite generations as wild, from which state they have been
taken by man to meet his needs, and cultivated in order to insure a suf-
ficient and unfailing supply. Some of these races were domesticated ages
ago, some within the lifetime of men yet living, and all have been more or
less modified from what they were in the wild state.

Exercises. 1. What wild animals or plants in your vicinity are, in your
opinion, related to domesticated or cultivated forms ?

2. What animals or plants that have never been domesticated would, in
your opinion, prove valuable to man ?

3. Make a list of the wild fruits and nuts native to your vicinity.

4. Make an exhaustive list of the cat tribe of wild animals, with notes
on the character and habitat of each.

5. Make the same sort of study of the dog tribe, including wolves, foxes,
and jackals.

References. 1. " Wild White Catde of Great Britain." Storer.

2. The zoology and the botany in use in the local school. •

3. Any good cyclopedia, or, better, a special treatise such as Lydekker's
Library of Natural History (6 vols.)

1 In this connection read Jack London's " Call of the Wild," one of the
strongest pictures of this reversion that has ever been drawn, and an excellent
dog story withal.

CHAPTER III

HOW ANIMALS AND PLANTS CAME TO BE DOMESTICATED

Domestication the result of necessity • Need for help in the hunt • Need for
additional food • Need for clothing and shelter • Need for labor • Domesti-
cation the first step in civilization • The civilizing effect of slavery • What
animals have done for us • Unused materials • Lost possibilities • Domestica-
tion a gradual process • Species that were domesticated

Domestication the result of necessity. Domestication both of
animals and plants came naturally out of the needs of primitive
man. If he could have maintained himself successfully on the
spontaneous products of nature, he would never have undertaken
the trouble of domesticating the wild animals and plants about
him, and of assuming the labor and responsibility of their main-
tenance and care.

It early became, however, a matter of necessity. Primitive
man, like the animals about him, lived under hard conditions.
The '" law of the wild " ^ was the law everywhere. Everything
subsisted by virtue of its strength, its endurance, or its wits, and
man, like his animal neighbors, spent most of his time in get-
ting something to eat and in avoiding being eaten himself. As
compared with the other animals, — for primitive man is little
else than an animal, — our barbarian ancestors found themselves
at no little disadvantage, purely on physical grounds. They
were not as strong as many of the animals and were no match
for them in fair battle. They were not as fleet of foot as most
of the game they hunted. They could not trail by scent like
the wolf, and if the hunter by sheer endurance stalked his game
and walked it to death,^ he was far from camp or cave where his

1 See Chapter V.

2 Man is probably the best walker among the animals and can easily outwalk
even the horse in an endurance test.

t DOMESTICATION OF ANIMALS AND PLANTS 2 1
ttle ones were, and most of the carcass was worthless when at
last he had obtained it.

Primitive man was not long in discovering that his chief ad-
vantage lay in his wits. He was the only animal that knew
enough to pick up a club and use it as a weapon, either of
offense or defense. He was the only one that could manage
fire.i He was the only one that could hurl a stone or make a
machine to send a projectile of any sort.^

By aid of various devices, such as weapons and traps, the
savage continued to subsist by his wits, and he was hard on the
species he hunted. As a consequence game not only grew more
scarce but it gradually learned the methods of this dangerous
enemy, who struck where he was not, and became exceedingly
wary, till scarcity and starvation were inevitable, calling for a
fresh draft upon the wits.

Need for help in the hunt. The hunting habits of the wolf
must have early attracted the attention of our barbarian ances-
tors. His ability to trail by the scent and his habit of hunting
in packs, as well as his fieetness and his relentless endurance,
could not have failed to impress themselves upon hungry hunters
in very early times, and to possess a pack of such helpers must
have been a primitive ambition.

P'ortunately the nature of the wolf is such that he is easily
tamed if taken young, and he succeeds well in captivity. His
intelligence is of an order that responds to that of man in his
hunting temper, and it is not strange that wherever primitive

1 Monkeys and baboons will warm themselves by a fire, but do not know
enough to replenish it. Fire was almost certainly at first obtained from volca-
noes. Its production by friction and by flint and steel must have been much
later achievements.

2 The ingenuity of primitive man in making projectiles is truly remarkable.
Bows and arrows, blowguns, and afterwards firearms, are progressive tributes
to increasing intelligence ; but of all projectiles, the boomerang is the most
wonderful, considering the grade of savage that produced it. The writer has
been told by travelers who have seen it done, that a skillful thrower could
strike a mark with the boomerang, which would then return and fall near the
thrower's foot.

DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS

man has been discovered he has had extensive packs of dogs,
certainly if wolves of any kind were found in that part of
the world. 1

The dog was easily tamed, but he was fleeter of foot than
man, his master, and both game and dogs were almost certain
to be soon lost in the distance, leaving the master to come be-
hind and take what was left after the death. Accordingly the
horse must have early appealed to the primitive hunter on
account of his fleetness.^ With his horse and his dog and his

Fig. 5. Head of the collie and of the coyote. Note similarity in outline and

general effect

weapons, however, the man was match for anything that roamed
the forest or the plain, and with them he has established and
made good his claim as lord of all creation.

Need for additional food. But all this was still harder upon
the hunted, and game was rapidly killed off or driven away, till
many a time the hunter returned empty-handed. Then it was
that a few nuts or seeds gathered by the women brought grate-
ful relief from what would otherwise have been distressing fast.

1 Reference has already been made to the fact that our American Indians
had made dogs out of the coyote or wild wolf of the prairie.

2 As late as the times of the Old Testament, even the wild ass is frequently
alluded to as a symbol of swiftness. This is especially true in Job and the
prophets, having reference, probably, to the Syrian wild ass figured in the
Ninevite sculptures.

DOMESTICATION OF ANIMALS AND PLANTS 23

and thus it was that agriculture had its beginnings in the fre-
quent failure of the hunt.

As game grew more and more scarce the favorite fruits were
held in higher esteem, the places where the large-seeded grasses
grew were carefully protected, the other vegetation was cleared
away, and the beginnings of cultivation were made. The next
step was to gather stores of fruits, nuts, and seeds for the
winter, and, last of all, to plant and care for the very best in
some open space or bend of the river where fresh new soil
awaited occupation. Thus did cultivation begin, and thus were
women the first farmers.

Nothing was more natural than that the best should be
gathered for eating, and the very choicest only reserved for
planting. In this way the first steps in plant improvement were
introduced at the very beginning of cultivation, and thus did
our ancestors early learn the fundamental lesson of all breeding,
namely, the better the parentage the better the offspring.

This utilization of plants as well as animals added vastly to
the food supply and greatly insured its constancy and regularity.
Savages who followed this course prospered and encroached
upon their neighbors, while those who depended solely upon
the hunt suffered periodic famine and faced, in the end, extinc-
tion,^ for in a state of nature the '' law of the wild " obtains
among men as well as among the animals.

However, man was unwilling to give up his animal food with
the growing scarcity of game. He had been in the habit of
slaughtering the best,^ without regard to the future, — an utterly
wasteful proceeding, for in this way the hunt was not only fear-
fully destructive of numbers but of quality as well, and it is little

1 Read the history of the Iroquois, or Six Nations, who raised crops, in con-
trast with that of the Canadian Indians who subsisted entirely by the hunt and
were often forced in winter to eat the skins and even the bark of their wigwams.

2 It is always the largest buck that is singled out for the chase. The best of
everything is hunted, just as the woodsman, cutting a tree, even for exercise,
chooses always the straightest and best, while the forester, who is the product
of civilization, cuts always the worst, giving the best a still better chance.

24 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS

wonder that hunting men starved periodically, when it took, as
estimated, forty acres of good hunting ground to sustain one
individual.

It was inevitable that the time should come when man must
take better care of the wild animals or give up animal food.

The first step was to hunt and destroy the wild animals that
preyed upon those that were of value to man,^ and the next was
to spare the finest males and all females with young.^ Thus
were the first steps in domestication and the beginning of im-
provement instituted at substantially the same time.

The next step was to provide food for this increasing stock I
of valuable semidomesticated animals. This was done in two
ways. The easy way was to herd and drive the bunch to fresh
pastures where there was good water. This required a consider-
able force of men and horses, not only to herd the animals but
to protect them from robbers, because these herds were none too
plenty and the feeding lands none too extensive.^

The other plan of providing food was to supply it directly
from cultivated plants, confining the animals more and more as
natural feeding grounds became exhausted. This is the more
laborious of the two methods, but it is the one followed when
natural feeding grounds (plains) are not extensive, and it is the
one necessarily followed wherever lands become valuable. Thus
did man save to his own use and preserve from extinction not
only the dog and the horse, but all the animals good for food,
and thus, in a measure, has he become their servant and care-
taker in consideration of what they can do for him.

1 To the knowledge of the writer a wolf hunt occurred in Illinois as late as
the very close of the last century, — I am quite sure in 1898.

2 At the discovery of South America the Peruvian Indians, or Aztecs, were
found to have already instituted an annual hunt by which all the animals of
a great region were rounded up in some mountain valley, driven to close
quarters, the worthless and dangerous beasts of prey systematically killed, and
the supply of meat taken not from the best, but from the common animals,
being careful to release the best for breeding purposes in order that the quality
of the supply should not deteriorate.

8 Read again the story of Abraham and Lot, Genesis xiii, 7-1 1.

DOMESTICATION OF ANIMALS AND PLANTS 25

Need for clothing and shelter. Food was not the only need
of man supplied by the beast and bird of the forest. The skins
were good for clothing and for tents, enabling the primitive
hunter to leave his cave and other natural shelters, and erect
his home wherever inclination or necessity dictated. The skins
of those taken for food were, however, not enough to meet
this need, and the world over animals with especially fine body
covering have been hunted almost to the point of extermina-
tion for their fur, originally as a matter of necessity but in these
latter days as a matter of luxury and profit.^ So relentless has
been that warfare, and so systematically has it been conducted,
that our valuable fur-bearing animals are nearly exhausted and
we ourselves will soon face the same issue with respect to these
animals that our barbarian ancestors faced with respect to food
animals, — domesticate or go without.

Even this has not fully met our need for the products of the
animal body, and many species with a long coat have from time
immemorial been shorn of their fleece, the "wool " to be woven
into cloth and the animal saved to grow another crop. Thus did
the scarcity of animals add one more step in our march of civili-
zation, and add the loom to our industries.

Even this was not enough. The wool of sheep and the hair
of goat and alpaca alone could not meet our new demands for
fabric. Then came the resort to vegetable fiber, not only for
clothing, but for cordage to take the place of the more expen-
sive, and at last impossible, dried sinew and leather lariat.^ Thus

1 The Hudson Bay Company was founded in 1670, and chartered by the
British government with special privileges to hunt fur-bearing animals in the
Canadas, especially in the Hudson Bay territory. These hunters and trappers
were really the first explorers, for they not only subsidized the Indians to hunt
and trap, but themselves penetrated to the remotest depths of forest and moun-
tain in search of the precious pelt. The quest for seal was no less ardent upon
the water than was that for otter, mink, and beaver on the land.

2 In certain portions of the tropics a tough and slender vine is used for
binding together the timbers in fence and building construction. The cipo
(pronounced see-po) is a vine of this kind, and is suggestively called the
Brazilian hail.

26 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS

a new list of plants came into cultivation, greatly extending our
farming operations, — all in order to meet the needs of an ad-
vancing civilization. And the end is not yet, for the demand is
still for more and better fabrics.

Need for labor. From the beginning man was a lazy animal.
Like his associates, he bestirred himself only in the presence of
extreme necessity. He acquired the horse to add to his fleet-
ness of limb, and thereby learned the lesson that riding is not
only faster but easier than walking.

Besides, when man undertook the somewhat wholesale domes-
tication of animals and plants he assumed an immense burden
not only of responsibility but of labor. If now he was to under-
take to provide the horse's food, what more natural than that
the horse should pull the plow^ to raise his own provender.?
Then, too, with the accumulated property to be carried from
place to place, not only for storage but for trading with people
who desired exchange, still new uses for the horse were found.

In this and other ways not only the horse was put to work,
but other animals like the ox, the camel, and the llama were
domesticated chiefly for their labor. Thus with the passing of
the hunt the old occupation of the horse is gone, but he has
found other uses which are no less valuable in our eyes, and we
cannot foresee the time when the so-called "horseless age" will
be truly ushered in.^

Domestication the first step in civilization. Every hungry
man is a savage, whatever his stage of development, and no
race is ready to lay even the foundations of a civilization till it
has provided itself with an ample and assured food supply. As
long as primitive man depended solely upon the hunt, so long
did he alternate between fast and famine, with the certainty that
in the end the famine would get him.

1 The original plow was not the traditional forked stick. It was without
doubt simply a sharp stick drawn by a cord or vine, and held by the attendant
in a slanting direction.

2 In spite of all the talk about doing away with horses, their numbers and
prices are steadily increasing.

DOMESTICATION OF ANIMALS AND PLANTS 27

But with animals to care for came property interests to de-
fend, and a feeling of responsibility developed which only can
stimulate that sober activity which marks civilization as distinct
from savagery.

With the primitive crops land came to have a value. This,
too, had to be defended, for savage enemies were not long in
learning that cultivated fields on which were growing the next
winter's food constituted the most vulnerable point in a neigh-
bor.i Stores of grain also constituted peculiar temptations and
necessitated walled or otherwise defendable cities.

The civilizing effect of slavery. There is a chapter of this
ancient history most unpleasant to revive, but yet upon which
we ought to be intelligent. It is difficult for us now to realize
how slavery ever did any good in the world, or how it ever
helped along towards civilization, yet a little reflection will serve
to show how at one time it played an important part.

In the primitive division of labor it was natural that the men
should be the hunters while the women stayed behind with the
children. It was natural, too, that upon the return of the suc-
cessful hunters, tired and hungry, their duty ended when the
game was brought home and laid at the feet of the women, whose
natural duty it was to skin the animals and prepare the meal.

Again, nothing was more natural than that the women should,
during the absence of the hunters, scour the neighboring forests
for such nuts and fruits and seeds as they could pick up ; for
experience taught that the hunt was not always successful, and
that a dinner of herbs was better than none at all, besides
contributing to the good humor of the men, who, in savagery,
did not hesitate to abuse anybody who was unable to success-
fully resist.

Taken altogether, the lot of the women of primitive races
is a hard and laborious one, with plenty of abuse thrown in.
Now it is easy to see how scarcity of game, restricted hunting
grounds, cultivated fields, and stores of food lead to warfare. But

1 How this led to war has already been noted in connection with the Iroquois.

28 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS

warfare means prisoners, and there is one thing more satisfying
to a savage victor than to kill his prisoner and use his skull for
a drinking bowl, and that is to take him home and turn him over
as a slave to his savage wife, who is not slow to make him per-
form her labor and to vent upon him the abuse she has so often
suffered herself, and which she and her children so well know
how to bestow.

Imagine the satisfaction with which a victorious savage would
regard the chief of a rival tribe whom he had brought as a
present to his wife, as he saw him day after day doing the
work of women ! Imagine, too, the satisfaction of the woman
in having the opportunity to belabor a man and perhaps encour-
age the children to practice cruelty upon him whom they had
once learned to dread as a great warrior.

It is a hard picture, this primitive slavery, but it is only under
conditions such as these that the savage man and the barbarian
woman first came to stand on terms of equality ; thus it is that
slavery was the first emancipation of woman, and it is this in-
stitution, bad as it is, that first made leisure possible to woman-
kind, and gave her honorable standing in the eyes of man.
With the later chapters of slavery and its degradation to both
races we are more familiar, but we cannot afford to forget, in
our horror of this now extinct institution, the great service it
once rendered to woman when the world was young.

What animals have done for us. The want of space does not
permit the expansion of this thought, but it is one to which
young people may well give some special study, for animals not
only give their bodies and body products to be consumed, but
they toil day after day for our advantage.

With the recent mechanical inventions, the business of carry-
ing both freight and men has been largely removed from our
animals, especially in our most highly civilized countries. And
yet we do not forget the pony express of our western plains,
nor fail to remember that it was within the memory of men
yet living that the patient ox toiled day after day to drag endless

DOMESTICATION OF ANIMALS AND PLANTS 29

emigrant trains across the boundless prairies, through the
bottomless "sloughs" and over the Great Divide. "Westward
the course of empire takes its way " would never have had its
full meaning for us, except for the thousands of cattle that
dropped by the wayside and left their bones bleaching on the
prairies beside those of the buffalo relative, as tribute to the
march of civilization westward.^

The development of South Africa is yet almost unwritten
history .2 Here no animal but the ox can endure the endless
toil of the treeless plain, and he has been the constant attendant
of the Boer from the Great Trek till the present, as he is
likely to be for a considerable time to come.

y Nothing is more common than for people that have become
prosperous to forget, even perhaps to despise, the very means
by which their prosperity came about, — to overlook the means
in the enjoyment of results. These animals literally give their
lives to our service, with no returns but feed and care, a fact
which raises the question of our natural obligation in exacting
this service. We are practicing upon them the " law of the
wild " even yet. Doubtless the end justifies the means, and
without a doubt it is right to use our animals to our own ad-
vantage, but every law, both human and divine, forbids that
we abuse them.

"^ In a large measure life in any form is a sacred thing. A
man's horse or cow belongs to him only in the restricted sense
that he is entitled to the service, and if necessary the life, only
when he provides generously for the needs of the animal and
surrounds it by as much comfort as possible. At best our ani-
mals are bits of God's creation which we are entitled to appro-
priate and use only under terms which we can justify before
Him who is the judge of all.

1 Even the first material for the Union Pacific was hauled by oxen, so that
the ox gave his labor as the buffalo gave his flesh, and both gave their lives to
this first connection between the East and the West.

2 See James Bryce's " Impressions of South Africa," an excellent book
dealing with primitive conditions.

30 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS

Unused materials. It has been frequently mentioned that the
world might have been much richer in domesticated races if it
had seemed worth while, or if we had really set about it.

The bison, whether European or American, would have made
a good domestic animal of the cattle kind. The quagga could
be domesticated if we needed him. The bighorn of the Rockies
would make a sheep, and the peccary or the wild boar would
make a pig. The prairie hen would make a better fowl than
the guinea hen, and any number of new dogs could be devel-
oped from the foxes and the wolves.

The wild rice of our northern lakes would make an excel-
lent grain for lowlands. The milkweed may have possibilities
as a fiber plant. Many of our native fruits and nuts have never
been domesticated, and it is a startling fact that our original
native grasses of the prairie, numbering many species, are being
allowed to disappear without contributing a single new race to
our cultivated grasses, — this, too, in face of the fact that we
have yet no grass without a serious defect.

Except for the difficulty of restraint, the deer and the antelope
would make valuable domesticated animals. The semidomesti-
cation of the skunk has already begun on the great skunk farms
where they are raised in numbers for their skins. The frightful
odor of this animal when on the defensive has given him an
evil reputation, but in truth he is a most gentle animal, with
much the disposition of the cat and without its savage ways.
The flesh is exceedingly sweet and tender, and it is altogether
likely that this little beast may yet become more nearly domes-
ticated than will ever be possible with the ostrich, which seems
incapable of affection.

Lost possibilities. Without a doubt many an animal or plant
now extinct would have made a most valuable domesticated
species, had it been taken in time. It is difficult to give ex-
amples because we know so little of extinct species, and because
it is impossible to make direct comparisons between a domesti-
cated and a wild race, either of the same or a different species.

32 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS

Many good and useful species, however, have been lost, and
many far less valuable have lingered.

Just now we are beginning to realize the possible value of a
species that has come upon the earth, made its way, and main-
tained its place among competitors, if perchance it possesses
qualities that are now, or that by attention may be, developed
into characters useful to man. The muskmelon is an example
of a species most unpromising in nature, and therefore neg-
lected almost until our own day, yet yielding readily to im-
provement and producing most delicious fruit. The tomato is
another example, and asparagus another.

Recognizing these facts as never before, the Department of
Agriculture at Washington is scouring the world in search
of plants of possible economic value, or those that are likely to
yield to the ameliorating influences of the breeder and the cul-
tivator. Even if not now valuable, those that are likely to be-
come so are well worth the most careful consideration. In this
way domestication of plants is at last becoming a systematic, not
to say a scientific, business.

This search for the possibly useful is coming to be nearly as
systematic and far-reaching as the scouring of the earth, by
such firms as Parke, Davis & Company, of Detroit, for plants
with new and possibly valuable medicinal qualities.

Domestication a gradual process. Southeastern Asia was un-
doubtedly the first area of domestication, with Egypt a close
second. Europe came later, and America last of all. Each made
its contribution to the stock of domesticated animals and plants
by adding what was lacking, by making use of some specially
valuable native, or by utilizing the wild stock of the region when
the cultivated races failed to acclimate, as was the case with
European grapes in the eastern United States.

In a general way the history of these civilizations is the story
of their domestications as well, and a critical reading of that
history with this particular subject in mind affords many side
lights on the people, as, for example, the terror of the Indians

DOMESTICATION OF ANIMALS AND PLANTS 33

at the Spaniard on horseback, or the IsraeUtes' fear of the
mounted army of the Assyrians before the Hebrews obtained
horses after the Exodus.

Species that were domesticated. The only consideration that
seems to have guided man in his work of domestication is the
possible usefulness of the species. No labor or pains seem to
have been so great, and no timidity or ferocity so extreme,
as to deter him from his purpose in the presence of a need
unsatisfied that some natural species might gratify.

At this point, and before taking up questions of improvement,
the student is strongly urged to turn to Part II and make a
detailed study of the sources from which our domesticated ani-
mals and plants have been drawn. If it is impossible to do this
for all species, let him at least do so for a selected number. The
chapters in question are separated from the body of the work, so
that they may be used either as text or reference, according to
the circumstances and the need of the student or the school.

Summary. Domestication was, in the beginning, a matter of necessity .in
order to insure a constant and adequate food supply, and it has been con-
tinued as a means of contributing to the comfort and general prosperity of
man. We have used what we needed and left the rest alone, leaving unu-
tilized much valuable material. Without this domestication our present state
of civilization could not have developed, and we could not spare any of the
prominent races now, either plant or animal, without detriment to man.

The facts of this chapter will enable us to realize why the list of domes-
ticated species is so extensive, and it will prepare us for a more particular
and detailed study, of special races both of animals and plants, as outlined
in Part II, as it will also prepare us for a realization of the need of still
further modifications and the means for effecting this improvement.

Exercises. 1. In what respects do pioneers experience the hardships and
assume the habits of primitive man ?

2. In what respects do camping parties revert to the primitive state?

3. Show under what disadvantages we would live without the horse, the
cow, or any other common animal or crop.

4. Make a list of the domesticated animals and plants kept by the Egyp-
tians during the sojourn of the Jews in bondage, in the delta of the Nile.

5. Make a list of the domestic animals kept by the Jews during the forty
years' wandering in the wilderness.

34 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS

6. What domesticated animals and plants did the Jews acquire after ob-
taining the Promised Land, and how did it affect their civilization? When
did they acquire horses?

7. What animals and plants had been wholly or partially domesticated by
the natives of North and South America before discovery by the white man ?

References. 1. Any good book dealing with primitive or pioneer life,
such as " The Oregon Trail " by Parkman, or the " Winning of the West "
by Roosevelt.

2. The earlier chapters of the Old Testament.

3. " The Conquest of Peru." Prescott.

4. Any good book on the North American Indians, such as Parkman's
"Jesuits in North America."

CHAPTER IV

NEED OF IMPROVEMENT IN DOMESTICATED ANIMALS
AND PLANTS

Natural species not perfectly adjusted to our needs • Maintenance of animals
costly • Further improvement needed • Need of more economic service • Some
individuals better than others • Economic significance of differences in effi-
ciency • The fact of variability established • Variability in a single character •
Historical knowledge of original species needed

Natural species not perfectly adjusted to our needs. If our

animal and plant allies had been especially created for our serv-
ice, it is to be assumed that they would have been perfectly
adapted to our needs ; but as they were appropriated from the
wild, they ofttimes but imperfectly meet our requirements.

For example, the horse is a little too timid, the bull too un-
trustworthy and ferocious, the wool of the sheep either too coarse
or too short for many needs ; and all animals make meat only
at enormous expense of feed, requiring, roughly speaking, about
ten pounds of grain or its equivalent for one pound of meat.

Corn has a little too much oil and not quite enough protein
for the best feeding purposes, and the stalk is larger and
heavier than we would like. Oats do not yield sufficiently in
the warmer sections, and we still lack an ideal pasture grass for
most regions of the earth.

And so we might go on indefinitely, enumerating particulars
in which we could wish our domesticated races were better
adapted to our requirements.

Maintenance of animals costly. Few realize the expense of
maintaining our extensive animal population. One cow will eat
thirty dollars' worth of feed in a year at ordinary prices, and
more if she can get it. A horse will eat from fifty to seventy-
five dollars' worth, according to the way in which he is kept.

36 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS

Besides this, these animals require a large amount of labor in
caring for their needs, and a still additional expense for the
shelter of themselves and their feed.^

The animal population of the United States in millions as
compared with the human is substantially as follows :

Census of 1900

Estimated for 1910

Human population . .
Horses, mules, and asses
Cattle of all kinds . .

Sheep

Swine

7 5,000,000
2 1 ,000,000
67,000,000
61,000,000
62,000,000

90,000,000

27,000,000
73,000,000
67,000,000
68,000,000

With five people to the family, we can say that in general,
and on the average every family has one horse, four head of
cattle, four sheep, and four swine, with several millions left over,
— a total average of three animals for each human inhabitant,
or fifteen to the family. The estimate for 19 lo can be only
approximate, for these proportions vary greatly.

It is little wonder that we raise immense acreages of hay,
corn, and oats to maintain all these animals. It is only on care-
ful thought that we realize how much of our lands and how
much of our labor are devoted to the care and maintenance of
the animals we have domesticated and brought to live among
us, and whose support we have undertaken.

There is argument enough now for the highest attainable
efficiency on the score of expense, but it must be evident to the
most casual reader that with the increase of human population

1 Read Circular ii8, Experiment Station, University of Illinois, and see how
extensive the barns must be to shelter the large number of inefficient cows
necessary to return the same profit as would be returned by a few economical
producers. In the case in hand, one class of cows return fourteen times the
profit of the other. This would mean that in order to realize a certain net in-
come, fourteen times as many cows of the one kind would have to be kept as
of the other, which means fourteen times as much barn room, fourteen times
as much capital tied up in feed, fourteen times as much milking, and more
than fourteen times as much waste and risk.

NEED OF IMPROVEMENT 37

and the enhanced value of lands, the time will come when it
will be difficult, if not impossible, to support as large an animal
population as we should like.^ Surely it is high time even now
to push forward this increase of efficiency to the end that values
shall not be wasted, and to the further end that as population
increases, our animal friends shall be less a burden upon us as
we continue to enjoy their service.

Further improvement needed. With some of our older
species the service is entirely satisfactory as to quality, but with
most of the newer and many of the older there is yet much to
be desired.

For example, wheat and oats are, so far as we know, ideal in
their quality, except that we should like to see a larger propor-
tion of strong plants with less shrunken grain. This, however,
expresses itself in a matter of amount rather than m quality of
food product. The cow gives us good milk, but not enough of
it for the feed she consumes, and so others might be mentioned
that are satisfactory except as to amount.

Coming to corn the case is different. This is preeminently
a stock food, but it is deficient in both nitrogen and minerals,
especially phosphorus. Can this deficiency be wholly or partly
remedied by mixture with other crops, such as alfalfa, for ex-
ample, or does something remain to be done in the way of
altering the chemical composition of corn itself ? If the latter,
the indications are that we can accomplish it.

Horses are now certainly fast enough. A two-minute gait is
at the rate of thirty miles an hour, which is neither safe nor
desirable for ordinary use. However, in the opinion of city
teamsters, the horse is not yet large enough. For their business

1 Let the student exercise his imagination in picturing the condition as we
approach the density of population of China, 400 to the square mile. How
then shall animals be kept ? Our population has doubled four times in the last
hundred years. What will be the condition if this rate of increase should con-
tinue another hundred years ? Let the student make some estimates covering
this question. Let him also determine the effect of education upon coming
problems of this kind.

38 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS

it is desirable to haul as much freight as possible with one team,
one wagon, and one driver.^

However fast the horse may go, he rarely pleases us in his
gait or his endurance, nor are his intelligence and docility yet
ideal. The horse is naturally a timid animal, and with his great
power is dangerous and growing more so with his increasing
spirit, unless his intelligence and tractableness are made to keep
pace with his increasing energy and action. Our safety depends
not upon our strength in his management, but upon the extent
to which the horse will take training and our ability and skill
in imparting that training.^ Before a large proportion of our
spirited horses are satisfactory at this point much is needed by
way of further improvement.

In respect to fruits, vegetables, and ornamental plants much
remains to be accomplished. Most of our fruits are relatively
new and not completely acclimated or fully adapted to all our
soils and conditions. Added to that is the fact that conditions
in fruit raising have suddenly changed. The time was when
every man picked from '' his own vine and fig tree," but now
we expect that most fruits will be transported long distances^
and still reach the consumer not only sound but fresh. This
is asking much, and the present call is for desirable " market
varieties," meaning those which yield well, are of good quality,
and will stand shipment, especially the latter.

1 As a good example, Ginn and Company, the publishers of this book,
had in their service a single team that could and did haul a load of over eight
tons. It mattered but little that the wagon weighed three and three-fourths
tons. One man drove the whole, and expensive labor and long delays were
avoided.

2 People who are not horsemen often think they are " able to hold any
horse." Real horsemen know better, and fully realize that the bit and the line
are at best only guides of a superior intelligence over one that is inferior but
willing to yield itself to guidance. For driving purposes, therefore, a horse is
valuable and safe in proportion as he has been trained and educated, and
always under all circumstances amenable to direction and control.

8 Consider the shipping of such delicate California fruits as peaches, pears,
and grapes over the entire United States and the exportation of apples to
Europe.

NEED OF IMPROVEMENT 39

There is no especial difficulty in combining yield and quality,
but the best varieties are in general too delicate to withstand
shipment for long distances unless picked green, which is an in-
jury to the flavor, except in such cases as the banana and the pear.
That the ideal market apple has not yet been produced is a fact
that shows what remains to be done. Many more new varieties
of pears, grapes, strawberries, raspberries, and blackberries will
continue to be produced before all sections will be supplied with
the best varieties both for home use and market purposes.

Vegetables are in much the same condition as fruits. Vast
improvement in most kinds has been effected within recent
years, and it is still going on at a rapid rate. The tomato has
been developed from the worthless '' love apple " within the life-
time of men yet living, who remember when this now luscious
fruit suffered an evil reputation as the supposed cause of cancer.

Asparagus, lettuce, and radishes have been wonderfully im-
proved within a generation, not to mention celery and sweet
corn ; and as matters are going now, onions will be made more
delicate in their flavor, and many a vegetable will come into
common use that is hardly yet introduced.

The development of new and beautiful varieties of flowers
and other ornamental plants is only begun. Out of the mate-
rials at hand new and unheard-of effects will be produced now
that plant breeding is coming to be studied and understood
as a science.

Need of more economic service. The first great need for
better plants and animals is in the interest of larger return
for the expense involved. It costs no more to fit and cultivate
the ground for a fifty-bushel crop of corn than for a thirty-
bushel crop,^ in which case the extra twenty bushels are clear
gain. If ten or twenty ears of corn of the same variety, and as
nearly alike as possible, be planted in separate rows side by side,

1 The average corn crop is about thirty bushels, yet the most profitable
crop at the University of Illinois has averaged ninety-six bushels for the last
three years.

DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS

it will be found that some of the rows will yield two and often
three times as much as others,^ all of which proves that some
varieties or strains will produce fifty bushels as easily as others
will produce thirty, showing conclusively the need of better
seed, or rather of the best that is obtainable.

Professor Fraser, head of the dairy department at the Uni-
versity of Illinois, has conducted many hundreds of actual tests,
aiming to secure reliable data on the relative efficiency of cows.
These tests are of two general kinds : one conducted away
from the University on the commercial herds of the state,
aiming to secure the yearly product with only approximate
reference to the food consumption ; the other conducted at the
University under the most careful conditions, and aiming to
secure records of the nutrients consumed, as well as of the
milk and fat produced.

Of the commercial-herd tests something over twelve hundred
individuals have been tested for periods running from one to
three years. Their average animal production was 5521 pounds
of milk and 2 1 9 pounds of fat distributed as follows :

Relative Milk-Producing Powers of 1200 Cows for One Year

Milk

Number below

Per cent below

Number above

Per cent above

Average

2,000 lb.

I —

1190

99 +

5'554 lb.

3,000 lb.

II31

94 +

5,704 lb.

4,000 lb.

243

20 -1-

957

80-

6,092 lb.

5,000 lb.

495

41 +

705

59-

6,650 lb.

6,000 lb.

753

63-

447

37 +

7,322 lb.

7,000 lb.

963

80 +

237

20 —

8,081 lb.

8,000 lb.

1096

91 + ■

104

8,943 lb.

9,000 lb.

1160

97 -

3 +

9.770 lb.

10,000 lb.

1 186

99-

I +

10,734 lb.

1 1,000 lb.

1 197

11,893 lb-

1 2,000 lb.

"99

12,1 17 lb.

1 This is an experiment that every student can readily verify, and it is
recommended that he do it.

NEED OF IMPROVEMENT 4 1

Relative Fat-Producing Powers of 1200 Cows for One Year

Butter fat

Number below

Per cent below

Number above

Per cent above

Average

50 lb.

I —

1 198

99 +

219 lb.

100 lb.

II76

222 lb.

1501b.

194

16 +

1006

84-

238 lb.

200 lb.

490

31 -

710

59 +

263 lb.

250 lb.

837

70-

363

30 +

302 lb.

300 lb.

1065

89-

135

II +

353 lb.

350 lb.

I 140

394 lb.

400 lb.

I 178

98 +

2 —

438 lb.

450 lb.

I 194

99 +

I —

477 lb.

500 lb.

I 199

539 lb-

These tables should be read as follows : In the first table, 10
cows, or I per cent of the whole, gave less than 2000 pounds
of milk; and 1190, or 99 per cent, gave more than 2000
pounds, the average of these being 5554 pounds, and so on
for other values.

Some comments on these facts are significant. The average
production of these 1200 cows was 5521 pounds of milk, and
219 pounds of butter fat. The best one fourth were able to pro-
duce an average of 7813 pounds of milk and 312 pounds of
butter fat per year, while the poorest one fourth were able to
produce on the average only 3435 pounds of milk and 1 37 pounds
of fat ; that is to say, waiving all questions of food consumption,
the poorest one fourth produced but something over 43 per cent
as much milk and fat as did the best one fourth.

A series of publications from the department shows exhaus-
tively the meaning of these facts. Some of these were published
before the entire number of records were in, but the relation
between the good and the poor cow was substantially the same.

Some individuals better than others. One of the most strik-
ing facts in the above herd tests is the wonderful difference in
efficiency of individual cows, even of the same age and breed.
Thus they ranged all the way from less than 2000 pounds of

DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS

milk per year up to over 12,000, and from less than 50 pounds
of butter fat ^ to over 500 pounds. Manifestly a whole herd like
the poorer cows would swamp their owner unless prices were
enormous or unless their food consumption were correspond-
ingly lower.

To test this point, the department conducted investigations
into the relative efficiency of commercial cows on the basis of
food consumed. Accordingly two or more cows were purchased
from each of several of the largest commercial herds of the
state, the aim being in every case to secure the very best and
the very poorest individuals in the herd, according to the best
basis of judgment at hand. The yearly record of these cows
is shown in the following table :

Variability of Cows on the Basis of Food Consumption

No. of
cow 2

Grades

Total
milk

Total
fat

Digestible
nutrient*

Ratio
n^m"

Ratio
n^f«

83
84

Good
Poor

11,794
8,157

382
324

7418
6737

0.63
0.82

19.42
20.79

85
86

Good
Poor

9,591
3,097

406
119

7532
4998

0.78
I.61

18.55
42.00

93
94

Good
Poor

9,473
7,845

358
282

7604
6706

0.80
0.85

21.24
23.80

95
96

Good
Poor

14,840
7,685

469
324

8379
6871

0.56
0.81

17.08
21.20

97
98

Good
Poor

8,562
1,411

291

6893
4062

0.80

2.88

23.68
78.00

1 By butter fat is meant not butter, but the fat of butter. Commercial butter
contains about 85 per cent fat, the rest being water, salt, curd, etc.

2 Numbers by which the cows were designated in the records.
^ Each group from the same herd.

* After multiplying number of pounds of fat by 2.4. This represents the
amount of food digested by each cow.

* n -f- m = nutrients divided by milk produced.

* n -T- f = nutrients divided by fat produced.

NEED OF IMPROVEMENT 43

A number of significant facts appear in this table. The herd
which furnished Nos. 83 and 84 was evidently a good herd, for
they were both good cows, though one was bought for a poor
cow. While the two differ widely in total production, they differ
almost correspondingly in food consumption, and the ratios for
fat production were close together.

On the other hand, Nos, 85, 86, though coming from the
same herd, betray wide differences. The good cow. No. 85, was
more than twice as efficient as her mate. No. 86, whether we
consider fat or milk.

Nos. 93 and 94, coming from the same herd, were both me-
dium cows, which goes far to show that the herdsman's estimate
of his cows is frequently far from correct.

The very low producing power of No. 98 is remarkable, re-
quiring 2.88 pounds of nutrient for a pound of milk, and over
78 pounds of nutrient for a pound of fat, — not quite one quarter
the efficiency of No. 83.

The very high efficiency of two of these cows is noticeable,
being more than five times that of the poorest cow mentioned
before, and more than twice the eflftciency of the poorer cows in
the permanent herd.

In addition to the above, some especially good individuals
have been pitted for a long time against others of inferior
ability. For example, Rose and Nora ^ consumed within a year
almost exactly the same amount of the same kind of feed, the
difference being less than 5 per cent. They were both rela-
tively heavy feeders, each consuming something over 6000
pounds of digestible nutrients. Rose produced 564.82 pounds
of fat, and Nora 298.64, a ratio of 1.9 to i. When we remem-
ber that Nora, the poorer cow, was not a poor cow at all, but
that she belongs with the best fourth of the 1 200 tested in the

1 The story of Rose and Queen, the latter another and a really poor cow,
has been entertainingly told in Circular loj of the dairy department of the
University of Illinois, which has issued also Circular 118, Cows vs. Cows, deal-
ing with the difference in efficiency of cows, and its meaning to the profits of
dairying and the cost of dairy products to the consumer.

44 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS

commercial herds of the state, this difference is exceedingly sig-
nificant. Rose was, of course, an exceptional cow, producing in
another test over two and one-half times as much as her com-
petitor, and making a twelve-year record of 7258 pounds of
milk, and 360 pounds of butter fat on the average (384 pounds
of fat for ten years), and never being beaten but once in all the
dairy tests ever conducted at this station. Professor Mumford,
also of the University of Illinois, has shown that substantially
the same differences exist between beef animals in respect to
the amount of gain for food consumed, ^ so that the principle
involved seems general.

Economic significance of differences in efficiency. The mean-
ing of all this is not at once clear, and some little effort is
needed to fully appreciate the economic significance of differ-
ences such as are here brought out, and the consequent desira-
bility of bringing our common animals to the highest possible
degree of efficiency. When one cow can make two and one-
half times as much as another on the same feed, the difference
is not as two and one-half is to one, but many times greater.
Under these conditions, when one cow makes 100 pounds of
butter, the other will make 250 pounds on the same feed ; but
the question of relative profits depends also upon two other
factors, — the cost of feed and the price of butter. P'or the sake
of illustration let us suppose, first, that it costs the value of
50 pounds of butter to pay for the food consumed, which is the
same in both cases. The profit would then be, in the one case,
the value of 100—50 (or 50) pounds of butter; and in the
other, 250 — 50 (or 200) pounds, which is 7tot two and one-half
but four times as much.

Suppose again that feed is higher or butter lower, so that it
now costs the value not of 50 pounds but of 90 pounds to pay
for the cost of feed. In this case the profit for the poorest cow
is the value of 100 — 90 (or 10) pounds of butter, and for the
other it is the value of 250 — 90 (or 160) pounds of butter,

1 See " Principles of Breeding," p. 82.

NEED OF IMPROVEMENT 45

which is sixteen times as much, not to mention the additional
expense for shelter and labor, or the extra capital involved in
the larger amount of feed consumed by the less economical
cow. Surely we need no better argument to show the necessity
for further improvement of cows.

We are in a transition stage, also, in the matter of meat pro-
duction, and have need of the most economical consumers of
our feed. If we neglect this point, our own meat will not only
cost too much, -but we shall be driven out of foreign markets by
such competitors as Argentina. The first to suffer in such an
event would be the farmers, and afterward all classes of people
would suffer together.^

The fact of variability established. All this tends to establish
the fact that all individuals of the same species are not equally
valuable, and plenty of evidence of a similar character can be
adduced to show that no two individuals, even of the same
species or breed, are exactly alike.

Of the many hundreds of thousands of people personally
seen by each of us, we find many similarities but no dupli-
cates ; moreover, the differences are many and extreme. Some
individuals have dark hair, others light ; with some it is thick,
with others thin ; now it is straight and again it is curly or
wavy. Some eyes are blue ; others are black or brown. One
man is tall and slender, while even his brother is short and
stout. Some are broad-shouldered ; others are thin-chested,
with narrow shoulders. Some have large hands and feet, others
small, and a few have small hands with large feet. One has a
mole on his cheek ; another has one on his neck or his nose or
perhaps none at all. One man has an extra thumb on one hand;
another has six fingers on each hand. One is bow-legged ;
another is knock-kneed. Here is a hunchback, there a giant,
and again we see a dwarf. One is crazy ; another is a criminal.
Some are handsome and others are ugly. Some are brilliant,

1 The student may well study this question and show, by written argument,
how it is that all classes will prosper or suffer together with the farmer.

46 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS

others idiotic. Some are deaf, others lame or bUnd. Some are
deficient by a hand ; others lack a leg.

Some are musicians, others orators or actors. Some like
mathematics ; others love literature. Some are farmers, others
lawyers or engineers. Many succeed ; many fail. Between even
the traditional twins that " look so nearly alike that their mother
could not tell them apart," important differences will be found
if a trained observer looks closely enough. ^

All this is equally true of animals and plants. It is only to
the untrained that all individuals of the same species look alike.
Horses differ so much in size, color, conformation, gait, and
disposition that it is difficult indeed to get together a " matched
span." 2 Some are intelligent and proud of their work ; others
are foolish, sluggish, and unreliable. Sheep differ not only in
the quantity of the fleece but in the fineness of the fiber as well
as in the density and the evenness of covering.^

No two trees bear apples alike, and even different apples on
the same tree differ not only in size but in quality. Some
melons are fine in texture and flavor ; others of equal size are
'' like pumpkins." One tree bears specially luscious peaches ;
another is next to worthless.

Among wildlings the same principle holds. Some horses are
fleeter than others and some wolves more cunning.^ Every
woods boy knows the bushes that bear the most luscious berries
and the tree that bears the largest and the best flavored nuts,

1 Even opposite sides of the same individual are slightly different. One
shoulder is higher than the other ; one leg is longer or stronger than the
other, meaning a longer step and causing lost people to travel in a circle.
Everybody is either " right-" or " left-handed," meaning by this that the cor-
responding side is the better developed and capable of stronger or more
accurate action.

* To the casual observer two horses colored alike are matched, but the
horseman looks first to the gait, then to conformation and size, and last of all
to the color.

8 The wool is finest and longest on the sides and back, shortest underneath,
and coarsest on the thighs.

* Read the story of Lobo in " Wild Animals I Have Known," by Thompson-
Seton.

NEED OF IMPROVEMENT 47

and every botanist will tell you that we may hunt forever with-
out finding two plants exactly alike, so mightily are the materials
mixed out of which races and individuals are made. This is
variation or variability^ and upon this fact are selection and
improvement based.

Variability in a single character. Variability arises in two
distinctly different ways : first, by different associations of char-
acters, as when one individual is red and white and another is
black and white ; and, second, by different degrees of develop-

RMHp

H^^^^

^Mt

r - -

HB^Hk^

\ '

J^BiP**

¥^

,tMt

p^ 1 ^

^vT-«tA,-_.- •'-.- — *

jwjji^

^^#^^^jS||P

^HUmi^

f-t~ J

II^!.^

5?^*

'T'^^--'

i^H

HHIhI

Fig. 7. Jersey cow, Figgis 76106, property of C. I. Hood & Company,

Lowell, Massachusetts. Champion and Grand Champion, World's Fair,

St. Louis, 1904. 547 lbs. 6 oz. butter in 7 J months. Such a cow is worth

perhaps a dozen of the ordinary kind that make 125 lbs. in a year

ment of the separate characters, as when one individual is
simply larger or fleeter or darker-colored than another. Either
gives rise to what is known as variation, and either may afford
the basis for natural selection.

However the racial characters may be mixed in different in-
dividuals, it will be found on close inspection that the separate
characters are themselves highly variable ; that is to say, varia-
bility is not confined to individuals but is a property of each and

48 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS

every character that enters into the composition of individuals
and of races.

Thus among sweet apples some are sweeter than others within
the same variety, and this is true quite independent of color or
size. Of all the trotting horses in the world some can go in 2 140,
some in 2 : 30, a few in 2 : 20, and a very few in 2:05 or less.

Of a thousand ears of corn taken at random from the same
field and of the same variety, some will be short and others
long, while the rest will stand between. This is variability in
a single character. It is, moreover, a kind of variability that
can be exhaustively studied by exact statistical methods, — a study
that is strongly recommended not only for its exactness but for
its influence in fixing definite notions of type and that devi-
ation from type which is called variability. These methods of
study are given in a later chapter, a careful study of which is
strongly recommended at this point.

Historical knowledge of original species needed. In order to
devise practical methods of still further improving the domesti-
cated races and more completely adapting them to the service
of men, we need, first of all, to know everything possible of the
character of the original species as they lived in a state of nature,
— how they behaved toward one another and how they prospered
before man interfered with their affairs. In other words, from the
way of the wild we can learn substantial lessons as to methods of
improvement, and this we propose to outline in the next chapter.

Summary. No plant or animal has yet been brought to its highest state
of efficiency, though some individuals are vastly superior to others, and vari-
ability is universal. Besides this, our needs and our desires are constantly
changing, mostly by way of advance. There is need, then, for still further
improvement, and the best course to pursue in deciding upon methods is,
first of all, to study species in a state of nature, where these species existed
in the wild for many generations previous to domestication.

Exercises. 1. The student should calculate with as much accuracy as
possible and report upon the cost of maintaining domestic animals in his
own neighborhood, especially as influencing the cost of meat and milk
production.

NEED OF IMPROVEMENT 49

2. Let him compute the amount of land and the proportion of our crops
devoted to the support of our animal population. Let him also estimate the
relative cost of vegetable and animal food, remembering that a pound of
meat contains no more nourishment than an equal weight of grain.

3. Take the domesticated animals and plants one by one and describe
the changes we should like in each to still better adapt it to our needs,
going well into the subject ; as, for example, that blue grass would be a
better pasture grass if it had, or could be given, a deeper rooting habit.

4. Plant ten ears of corn that look as much alike as possible, each in a
separate row, and take the yield of each.

5. With the scales and the Babcock tester test at least ten cows for
relative amount of fat in the milk.

6. Point out definite respects in which cows and corn, for example, need
improvement, and do the same for other animals and plants.

CHAPTER V
THE WAY OF THE WILD

The astonishing abundance of life • The struggle for existence • Selective
effect of the natural conditions • Competition for food • Competition for room •
Competition most severe between individuals of the same species • Natural
selection • Survival of the fittest • The individual and the race • Significance of
numbers • Significance of vigor and length of life • Significance of offensive
and defensive weapons • Significance of protective coloring and markings •
Mimicry • Design in nature • Causes of color in animals and plants

Before we can discuss to best advantage the means of further
improving our animals and plants it is necessary that we under-
stand as well as possible the conditions and habits of life to
which they were accustomed in the natural state before they
came to us, because out of this we shall evolve a method of
procedure for further improvement.

The astonishing abundance of life. The most conspicuous
fact in nature is the astonishing abundance of life and the ex-
ceeding rapidity with which all living beings multiply. Whether
animal or plant, large or small, powerful or puny, every species
multiplies according to the laws of geometrical progression,
each with a ratio of its own.

The effect of this fact upon mere numbers is a point not
easily comprehended. The fastest-multiplying forms are the
bacteria, some species of which are able, under good conditions,
to double every twenty minutes. At this rate a single individual
with its descendants would, if uninterrupted, fill all the oceans
of the earth in an incredibly short space of time.

A single ear of corn of good size has one thousand kernels,
and an average ear has, say, six hundred, each capable of repro-
ducing a similar ear. How long would it take at this rate for
the product of one ear to cover the cultivated earth .?

THE WAY OF THE WILD

Man is one of the slowest of animals to multiply, yet under
good conditions his numbers may double in twenty-five years ;
indeed this rate has been maintained in this country because
the population of the United States has doubled four times in
the last century, with four wars to reduce numbers. If this ratio
could continue for another hundred years, we should have by that
time no less than fourteen hundred millions of people in this
country, making a denser population than that of China to-day.^

Few wild animals are known but will breed faster than man,
and it takes but slight exercise of the imagination to see how
reproduction might go on, were there nothing to check it, until
there would no longer be even standing room on earth for the
animals alone, to say nothing of their food.

The possible rate of increase of plants is indeed enormous.
It is said that the common pigweed ripens from three to four
thousand seeds, and a large plant of purslane as many as a
million, explaining one reason why they are such troublesome
weeds. Plants that seed thus freely are exceedingly difficult of
eradication, especially if the seeds are hardy .^

Plant lice are still more prolific than weeds. Dr. S. A. Forbes,
state entomologist of Illinois, is authority for the statement that a
single corn-root aphis is capable of producing ninety-eight young,
and that sixteen generations are possible in a single season. At
half this rate of increase he computes that if the successive off-
spring of a single female and her descendants for a single season
could be put upon an acre of land at Cairo at the southern end
of the state and placed as thick as they could stand, then on
top of this set another acre, and so on without crushing till the
end of the season, and if then the column could be tipped to

1 Showing the extent to which social, economic, and political considerations
will shortly turn upon our power to feed our people, and that in turn upon
questions of land fertility.

2 The cocklebur ripens two seeds in one bur. One of these is larger than
the other and under equal conditions will germinate first. This weed, there-
fore, has two distinctly separate chances of propagation with respect to con-
ditions of germination alone.

52 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS

the north till it should lie upon the ground, it would reach to
Chicago (360 miles) and twenty-three miles beyond into Lake
Michigan ; that is to say, that the descendants of a single
corn-root louse at half the maximum rate could in a single sea-
son, if uninterrupted, reproduce enough to make a solid column
I acre square and 383 miles long, — a perfectly inconceivable
number. After this computation it is not difficult to believe the
truth of the assertion that certain bacteria that can double in
about twenty minutes would be able in a few days, if unre-
stricted, to fill all the oceans of the earth.

With this enormous birth rate it becomes important to study
carefully the checks to increase, and the various means by which
living things have been prevented long ago from absolutely
overrunning the earth, where standing room, to say nothing of
food, is limited. What, now, are the conditions and mutual
relations between these immense numbers of diverse species
as they live together in a state of nature ?

The struggle for existence. In general, it may be said that
species, are indifferent to each other except when interests clash,
and then one or the other must go under, for the law of the
wild is that everything lives not where it chooses to live but
where it is able to live. When so many more individuals are
produced than can possibly find food and room to survive, there
ensues at once a battle for life, which has by common consent
been called, as Darwin named it, the struggle for existence.^

This is a many-sided struggle, — a kind of three-cornered
fight, — first against natural conditions in general, then against
the competition of other species, and, last of all, against the
competition of its own kind. This elemental warfare, for it is a
warfare, though generally unknown to the participants and often
not noticeable except to the trained observer, — this warfare is

* In this general connection read " Origin of Species by Means of Natural
Selection," by Charles Darwin. It is an old and much misunderstood book,
rather difficult, it is true, but well worth the careful reading of all students of
life in the wild.

THE WAY OF THE WILD 53

always on, and its complications are so many and so intricate
and its consequences so profound that a little space is well de-
voted to its analysis.

Selective effect of natural conditions. There is a blind but
wholesale struggle of living things against what may be called
natural conditions, which assert their influence independent of
struggle against competition with other living beings, and gen-
erally before it begins.

First of all are climatic and seasonal influences. Hosts of
young things, both plant and animal, come into existence only
to perish on the spot from adverse climatic influences. Many
species exist, in northern latitudes for example, only by the
narrowest margin, and one exceptionally hard winter will close
them out by the millions. In this way whole fields of wheat
and clover are "winter killed," as we say, and whole forests
die after an exceptionally dry summer followed by an unusually
severe winter.

A sudden freshet may wash away in immense numbers the
season's crop of seeds of maple, elm, or oak, and send them
downstream to rot in the lowlands. The same freshet may kill
a valuable lot of mature timber downstream and change forever
the flora of the locality.^

A wet summer may drown most of the bumblebees, and then
the farmers need have small expectation as to the crop of clover
seed, which is dependent upon bees for fertilization.

A late fall may so stimulate growth in peach trees and other
tender plants as to prevent that '' ripening " of the wood neces-
sary to a successful endurance of extreme cold. On the other
hand, a ''warm spell " in winter may start the buds, after which
a '' cold snap " will kill outright in a day the prospective crop
of the year. The apple crop is occasionally lost by late cold
weather after '' setting " of the young fruit. Of course this

1 When the Chicago drainage canal was dug, many bodies of timber along
the banks of the Illinois were killed by the new water level established, and
many damage suits resulted.

54 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS

particular instance has no direct effect upon vegetation, but it
serves to illustrate the accident of season and its influence upon
a new crop of seed.

Extreme and continued rains at pollination will reduce the
yield of corn.^ A hot wind may have the same effect by kill-
ing and drying up the tender young silk before the pollen has
opportunity to fertilize.

Fire plays frightful havoc with vegetation, especially in the
forest, and utterly prevents the appearance of certain species
on fire-swept lands ; ^ indeed, few can endure a periodic baptism
of flame.

Again, every species has its northern and its southern limits, as
well as its limits of higher and lower altitudes. As it nears these
limits it not only exists with greater difficulty, but its existence is
more precarious, and a little thing will turn the tide for thousands
of individuals, perhaps temporarily, perhaps permanently.

The hard winter not only kills vegetation but freezes up the
water supply and often shuts off the food till bird and beast in
the melting snows next spring give mute testimony to the
sufferings they have endured and the losing fight they have
waged, just as a number of years ago the longspurs were
caught in passage by a Dakota blizzard and were literally killed
by the millions.

In this general way what may be called the blind forces of
nature take their toll of life, and it is a heavy toll indeed, whole-
sale and sweeping, relentless as fate and tireless as time.

Competition for food. After all this, however, a heavy balance
remains, — a balance always too heavy for the food supply.

1 This is due to the fact that the pollen grains stick together and fall in
little pellets rather than singly, as they should, in a fine yellow dust, reach-
ing each of the thousand silks of a single ear, for every kernel has its in-
dependent silk.

2 The jack pine has taken possession of certain old pine lands only because
it has the habit of holding its cones and shedding its seeds gradually. If, there-
fore, the tree should be killed, there remains a stock of seed for renewal. All
other species are exterminated by these fierce fires till the ground is again
reseeded by the slow processes of nature.

THE WAY OF THE WILD

Besides, these calamities of climate and season, of fire and flood,
are occasional and local in their happening, not constant and
general, so that in a large sense the free and unrestricted in-
crease of earth's millions is thrown upon the world for main-
tenance, and there is not enough. The only alternative is a

Fig. 8. In a fight against snow and cold the bison can hold his own

wholesale destruction of individuals by starvation, in which the
strongest alone survive.

The competition for food is, therefore, the chief element in
the struggle for existence. There is no common food supply
for all species, but everything, from the biggest to the littlest,
from the strongest to the weakest, lives upon its neighbor, and
it is literally true that the chief concern of each inhabitant of
the wild, and the one upon which he bestows most of his time
and his principal attention, is to secure something to eat and to
avoid, in return, being eaten himself. With one eye on his prey
and the other on his enemy he balances his chances and gambles

56 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS

with death every day of his Ufe, — all without realizing either
the magnitude or the intensity of the game he is playing.^

The big fish eat the little ones ; the wolf and the jackal hunt
beast and bird ; the feathered tribe makes life intolerable for
beetle, bug, and worm ; and while beak and tooth and claw are
busy with destruction, the parasite sucks the blood of the depre-
dator or gnaws his vitals out as he hunts his defenseless prey.
Nothing is exempt. It is a warfare not only of strength and
cunning but of resistance and endurance as well.

This consumption of one species as food for another is im-
mensely destructive of individuals. A single large animal in a
day will consume seeds or small plants literally by the thousand ;
often, besides, it destroys as much as it eats. It is estimated that
each cat on the average destroys fifty birds per year. One large
fish will consume immense numbers of small fry. Most eggs of
birds serve as food for snakes or other t)irds. Only a few are
hatched, and most of these follow the fate of the egg in which
life was destroyed before it appeared.^

Broadly speaking, and in general terms, animal life subsists
upon plant life, and it in turn upon the mass of nonliving matter
of which the world is made, so that the two together complete
a kind of cycle, ending where they began, after the animal has
finished its life and returned to dust. It will not do, however,
to rest so important a matter on such generalized and imperfect
statements. Briefly and substantially the facts are as follows :

All living structures ^ are characterized by more or less highly
organized compounds, of which carbon, oxygen, and nitrogen are

1 Man is undoubtedly the only animal that has any true knowledge of death,
or appreciation of it when it has occurred. Wild animals attack moving things
and are entirely satisfied with simulated death ; that is, they fight whatever
moves, but desist when motion ceases unless impelled by hunger, in which case
they do not wait for cessation of motion, but eat the prey alive or as soon as its
escape no longer seems likely.

2 It is impossible to estimate the destruction wrought by such predatory
animals as the blue jay, the kingbird, the hawk, and the cat.

' By this is meant the bodies of animals and the stems and leaves of trees
and plants.

THE WAY OF THE WILD 57

characteristic and essential elements. Now the world's supply
of these important elements is in the form of exceedingly raw
material floating in the air. Oxygen can be taken in by the leaves
of plants and the lungs of animals and used at once and directly
by the organism. Carbon and nitrogen, however, exist in the
air in a condition useless for the direct needs of either plants
or animals.

The great problem of subsistence is therefore, primarily, to get
carbon and nitrogen, which all animals and plants alike, whether
large or small, high or low, must secure in large and constant
quantities in order to maintain life and its activities.

Now carbon exists in combination with oxygen as COg. This
is a very simple but a very stable compound, and in this form no
animal can use it. Only the green chlorophyll of leaves, and that
in the presence of sunlight, can break this compact with oxygen,
and thus the pioneer labor of securing carbon and bringing it
into more complex compounds, especially those including hydro-
gen, is, and must be, performed by the higher plants ; and on
these and their remains must all animals depend for their carbon
supply, as must also the nonchlorophyll plants like bacteria.

Of course many animals live on other animals and thus short-
circuit the carbon problem, just as many bacteria are directly
parasitic on living plants and even animals. In general, plants
and animals both take their oxygen direct from the air, but a
few bacteria and other low forms of plant life depend upon
getting oxygen as they do carbon, — by taking it from its combi-
nations, even in a living plant or animal. Such parasites are, of
course, dangerous to life, and they lie at the base of some of our
most troublesome plant and animal diseases. ^

Nitrogen is still more difficult than carbon to bring into the
combined state. It is a lazy element, and the immense stock in

1 It would be a mistake to assume that all diseases, even those of a germ
character, are due to vegetable parasites. It is now generally held that the
germ of smallpox, for example, is a protozoon, that is, animal rather than
vegetable, though at this level of life we are down where plants and animals
shade into each other by almost imperceptible differences.

58 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS

the atmosphere is useless ahke to animals and plants except a
very few species of bacteria which constitute, so far as we know,
the only means for collecting available nitrogen except the slow
and irregular action of electricity.^ In this way all life, both plant
and animal, depends almost absolutely for its nitrogen upon
bacteria, the smallest of all organisms, invisible to the naked
eye and so exceedingly minute that a hundred of them placed
end to end would not reach through the thickness of this sheet
of paper. On how slender a thread does the life of the world
depend !

Every species, therefore, lives wherever it can find suitable
food, and does not hesitate to attack another, living or dead, and
consume its substance either by the rending of its flesh and
the consequent quick destruction of life, by sucking its juices
as an external parasite, or even by invading the very body of its
prey and consuming its vitals with slow destruction. This is
very common among insects, one species laying its egg in the
body of another, where it hatches, producing a larva that lives
at the expense of the host till death ensues, by which time he is
ready to undergo one of his transformations and afterwards
'*go it alone." 2

And so it is that food means indiscriminate slaughter by both
sudden and lingering methods, so it is that the struggle for
existence is chiefly- fought out at this point, and so it is that the
food supply is the chief consideration in fixing the prosperity and
the life tenure not only of individuals but of species as a whole.

Competition for room. This is no less real than is competition
for food, but it applies to plants rather than to animals, which
seldom suffer for mere space. When, however, by chance plants
come up too thick for standing room, they are bound to suffer

1 The electric spark serves to combine nitrogen and hydrogen in small
amounts, but the world's supply of nitrogen is supposed to be dependent upon
bacterial action.

2 It is common for wasps to sting a supply of insects, paralyze them, plant
an egg in each, and pack them securely away to serve as food for the young
larvae as they hatch.

THE WAY OF THE WILD 59

and the weakest are doomed. Under such conditions there is,
of course, a competition for food from the hmited amount of
soil at hand, as there is also for moisture in time of drought ;
but the chief competition is for sunlight.

All growth in weight of plants is attended by the fixation of
carbon from the carbon dioxide of the air, but the process is a
chemical one that takes place only in the direct rays of the sun.
The growth of plants is therefore absolutely dependent upon
their leaves being constantly exposed to direct sunlight. When,
consequently, individuals are closely crowded together, only the
tallest can push their leaves up into the light, while the others
are overshadowed and shut away from the only power that can
put carbon into their structure. Accordingly they must die, not
exactly from starvation but rather from inability to make use
of the plant food of the air.

This is the principal way in which tall, quick-growing weeds
injure crops by getting the start, and, being able to keep it, they
kill the crop or greatly check it by shutting off completely or
partially the direct sunlight. This is why sweet corn and Kafir
corn are so much more difficult to raise than is Indian corn,
especially in the moist climate of the so-called corn belt. The
plants themselves are at first small and slow-growing, while the
weeds of this region are quick-growing with rank stems and
broad leaves, which quickly overtop and shut out the sunlight
from the crop.

The same effects will follow the attempts to get a " stand "
of alfalfa unless these weeds are kept cut off. The young alfalfa
sends up at first but a slender stem with few leaves, and until
the root is well established it is no match for rank weeds that
reverse the process, namely, expend their first energies in pro-
ducing stem and leaf. Indian corn, on the other hand, will,
with a fair chance, grow almost as fast as any weed, and in any
event always " keeps its head up."

We take advantage of this principle in killing especially
troublesome weeds like Canada thistle and quack grass, which

6o DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS

have the underground rootstock. Everybody knows that ordinary
cutting or pulHng avails nothing, for they merely send up new
shoots from the buds already formed in the running rootstock
under ground. If, however, this new shoot and leaf are killed
by cutting off at once, and the next and the next treated in the
same way as soon as they appear, the plant will die in time, for
it has but a limited number of " buds" and a limited amount of
food stored in the stem ; and if it cannot soon get new leaves to
the sun for more carbon, it must give up the fight and die. Plow-
ing thoroughly once a week for a single season will kill any weed.

This struggle from overcrowding is best seen in the growth
of young trees in the forest. Many more seedlings will start
than can possibly live, for a fully matured tree needs and will
take a space from ten to fifty and in some cases even one
hundred feet across.

Accordingly when young trees stand thick a struggle at once
ensues as to which shall overtop the others and get to the sun-
light. The strongest will, of course, be the tallest and get the
most light. This in turn gives it more carbon and greater
growth, with still further advantage over its fellows, which
manage to live as long as they can keep a few leaves in the
sunlight, and then die when the failure, which is inevitable,
really comes.

It is interesting and almost pathetic to see the extent to which
this struggle for sunlight and life is sometimes carried. The
writer once saw a specimen that had recently died out of a
thicket of young maples. It was thirty-six feet high, yet was
but one and three-fourths inches in diameter at the largest place,
so completely had its little growth been converted into height
at the expense of size in the vain effort to keep its few leaves
bathed in the precious sunlight. This tree never stood quite
alone, but leaned helplessly against its stronger neighbors after
the fashion of a vine.

Among the trees that remain, the same principle applies as
between the upper and the lower limbs. As new branches start

THE WAY OF THE WILD

out above in the struggle upward, the lower ones are shaded
the same as those of the lower- growing trees, and ultimately for
the same reason die and drop off. In this way trees growing
in close proximity to each other
develop tall bare trunks valu-
able for timber, while those
growing in the open would not
be forced upward by competi-
tion nor would the lower limbs
be killed. Such trees develop
beautiful tops, being lighted on
all sides, but they never make
timber trees, however old or
mature. 1

Competition most severe be-
tween individuals of the same
species. At first thought it would
seem that members of the same
race would live in peace and
harmony together, and that the
competition would be between
different species only. But that
is not so. In so far as compe-
tition exists at all between indi-
viduals of the same race it is
the most severe of all.

In the competition for food,
whether plant or animal, the
needs of the same species are
identical, the methods of growth in plants and the hunting
habits among animals are the same, and the competition is
much more direct than where needs are not quite the same
and habits are somewhat different.

1 It is suggested that the student verify the foregoing statements by visits
to weedy fields and to young forests.

Fig. 9. The best possible condition
for rapid growth, as it affords oppor-
tunity for maximum exposure of leaf
surface. This grapevine consumed
four years in covering the first ten
feet of the derrick, but with this
start it ascended the remaining forty
feet in one year

62 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS

In respect to room the same principle holds. Plants of the
same species have a nearly equal rate of growth, so it is a neck-
and-neck race from start to finish, and often the struggle is so
nearly equal that they all go down together. It is the case of
Greek meeting Greek over again.

The best example of this is the familiar one of overseeding.
Ofttimes the farmer in finishing his seeding of oats or wheat
will drive across the end of the field to cover unseeded spots.
In this way much of the strip thus covered gets a double seed-
ing. The slender, " spindling " growth of leaf or stem and the
greatly reduced yield of such places are familiar to all grain
farmers, as is the general appearance of most fields of " sowed
corn," where so much seed is put on that there is neither room,
moisture, nor fertility to mature it all, so the total result is a
weak, stunted growth of all the plants, engaged as they are in
a mutually destructive competition.

The fact that a heavier yield of hay and pasture can be pro-
duced by ground sown to mixed grasses than when sown en-
tirely to one variety depends partly upon the principle here
under discussion, and partly, especially with pastures, upon
the fact that different species take on their best growth at dif-
ferent seasons of the year, thus lessening by that much the
direct competition.

The fiercest battles among animals are not those waged for
food, which are for the most part exceedingly unequal conflicts.
They are those waged between the males of the same species,
which are in almost constant conflict, especially during the
breeding season, those of different species rarely troubling each
other except for food.

Among animals that herd in the wild, like horses, cattle, and
bisons, one mature male in the prime of life assumes the leader-
ship of the herd, and he will maintain it as long as he can
master any younger aspirant that feels he has attained the
strength and endurance to try conclusions. Some day the success-
ful aspirant will arise and prevail over the favorite, who will then

THE WAY OF THE WILD 63

retire to the rear, and the herd will accept the new leadership.
In this way only the very choicest and most vigorous survive
to head the herd.

Natural selection. And so the competition goes on against
fire and flood and drought and cold ; against talon, tooth, and
claw, till the weakling goes to the wall. When there is not
enough for all, when the dinner of one means the death of
another, when the problems of life become reduced to the
elemental instincts of hunger and self-preservation, then
slaughter begins and death and extermination are everyday
employments. This is natural selection, or the weeding out of
the weakest.

This reduction process of nature is not always attended with
violence and bloodshed, but is often silent and inconspicuous
though none the less relentless. The woodpecker digs his worm
out of his burrow in the timber, and only the longest and hardest
bill will provide enough when worms are scarce. This compe-
tition based on quality of bills is not conspicuous, but it is, after
all, direct and effective.

A mass of vegetation of many species is growing on the
same area.^ As none can move they all must stay and fight
it out together. Now is the struggle for room combined with
that for food, and it is a battle royal with no noise but with
plenty of fatalities.^

In this selective process the vigor of the conflict and the
intensity of the selection are much dependent upon conditions,
whether favorable or unfavorable to life in general. It might
seem at first that where conditions of life are least favorable,

1 Try the experiment of counting the number of different things that can
be found growing together on a square yard of old turf.

2 Read " The Battle in the Meadows," by Maxwell T. Masters. This fasci-
nating little book describes the effect upon the mixed herbage of an old park
at Rothamsted, England, when fertilizers of different kinds were applied. The
effect of each upon the struggle between the different species growing
together, some being favored by nitrogen, for example, and others by potas-
sium or by phosphorus, constitutes one of the most fascinating nature stories
ever written.

64 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS

the reduction would proceed furthest, but, in general, such is
not the case.

For example, many more species of plants will grow together
on poor land than on rich, and if fertilizer be applied to such a
spot supporting a feeble growth of many species, their number
will be at once reduced.

The reason of it is that under generally hard conditions noth-
ing succeeds well enough to institute a vigorous fight, but as
soon as conditions are improved, as by the addition of fertilizer,
then at once some species will succeed so well as to crowd others
down and possibly out. This is one test of the natural fertility
of lands, namely, the number of species found growing together
upon it in a state of nature ; and the same principle is employed
by good farmers who make the land so rich that the crop will
choke out the weeds. ^

Survival of the fittest. The result of natural selection is the
survival of the fittest. This does not mean the best from any
standpoint of ours, but it does mean the ones that fit best into
all the conditions that determine the issue of the struggle.^ It
would be the woodpecker with the longest and hardest bill, the
wolf with the best scent and the highest speed, the bull with
the sharpest horn and the strongest neck ; indeed, among savage
animals it means the supremacy of the longest tooth and the
sharpest claw.

Among the hunted it means the horse with the fleetest foot
and the greatest endurance. It means the deer or moose with

1 This principle also explains the relative inaction of the desperately poor
and distressed portion of the degenerate class. If they were better fed, they
would be more aggressive and consequently more dangerous. So does natural
selection work among humans as elsewhere.

2 For example, a savage and a sage may be so situated that skillful running
alone will save life. Then for that purpose running becomes the test of sur-
vival, and the savage alone may be able to meet the test, in which case his is
the best " fit " with the conditions. Under most conditions, however, the sage
would have the advantage. All this means that the best trained man is the
one that is able to meet and fit into the greatest variety of conditions that are
likely to come his way.

THE WAY OF THE WILD 65

the most inconspicuous color. For example, the white color of
the albino deer, shown on page 102, would be against him, as it
would be in favor of the polar bear with his different surround-
ings. It means the bird or beast most successful in hiding or
in eluding its pursuers, and everything which helps in this will
help to make the " fit " more perfect and thereby to more
certainly insure survival.

With plants it means the fastest-growing stem which will
most certainly reach the sun, or the deepest-running root which
alone will secure moisture in time of drought ; it means the most
spiny covering which protects best against herbivorous animals,
the most showy flowers or the most penetrating odors which best
assure fertilization, or the most toothsome and conspicuous seeds
which best attract bird or squirrel to carry off and bury, some
portion of which is never recovered. These are the circum-
stances that determine the fitness to survive.

On careful study it will be seen that every species has some
natural trait or character, which, in a state of nature, enabled
it to survive, else it would not be here now ; and of this
species the individuals that possess this character in the great-
est perfection are the ones that best withstand the rigors of
natural selection. Species and individuals not possessing such
natural advantages at once become extinct, as do those whose
advantage is rendered worthless by some sudden change in
the surroundings.

For example, the natural advantage of the birds generally is
their aerial flight and their powers of rapid reproduction ; with
the yellow butterfly it is his offensive taste ; with the caterpillar
it is his hairy covering, which, like the spines of the porcupine,
are unpleasant to the attacking party ; with the cat tribe it is
the prehensible claw and the silent tread ; with the antelope it
is his wonderful scent and his fleetness ; with the pig.it is his
long snout with its remarkable rooter ; with the elephant it is
his trunk ; with the beaver it is his tooth and his tail ; with the
snake it is his venom and his incurving teeth ; with the sheep,

66 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS

bighorn, and chamois it is the abihty to climb where only the
eagles can follow, and to take flying leaps from crag to crag.

All species and individuals not possessed of some such natural
advantage, or with whom the advantage has been rendered worth-
less, go down early in the struggle. Of course such great natural
calamities as fire and flood, making wholesale destruction, take
everything both good and bad, fit as well as unfit. Such events
come so infrequently and so suddenly that nothing can meet
their exactions.

The fate of species, however, is not settled by these sudden
and calamitous events except in rare cases and for certain
localities.^ This fate is settled by the slow and relentless method
we have described, in which literally thousands of every species
undertake to supply the cravings of hunger and the needs of
life to the best of their ability, but go down in the struggle to
defeat and death, while others carry on the struggle with occa-
sional success. These alone count in the line of descent.

The individual and the race. It is, indeed, a savage picture
that we draw when we attempt to depict nature at work in her
workshop with living beings for her tools and her materials.
Everything is relentlessly pursuing its own advantage and spend-
ing its time in killing and eating or in being eaten in turn as it
surrenders to the inevitable, — a savage tearing mass of animated
matter spurred on by instincts not understood and by impulses
incapable of comprehension, the end of which sooner or later,
whether successful or unsuccessful in the struggle, is death.

Looked at in this large way, life at best is but a doleful picture,
for, as some one has remarked, the life of every animal in the
wild is a constant terror and its end a tragedy. The pathos of

1 It is more than likely that such sweeping changes as the glacial epoch do
operate to exterminate species at wholesale off the face of the earth. Instances
are not wanting where species have been stranded by the retreating glacier,
such as the wild primrose on Mount Washington and on the north side of a
single ledge in southern Michigan. Many species, too, were swept off as the
glacier advanced, and were unable to return with its retreat, as in England,
which has a much simpler flora than has France, just across the Channel. •

THE WAY OF THE WILD

this fruitless struggle of millions as they stem the tide with diffi-
culty for a moment, then join the inevitable stream of death, and
the apparent heartlessness of it all, lead us sometimes to question
the plan and to wonder if, after all, life is worth the living.

This is a gloomy view, however, to take of life, whether
animal, plant, or human. There is another and a brighter picture,
if only we will clear our vision to its perception.

Existence is a great mystery. The individual is but a unit in
a gigantic plan — a never-ending, always-changing panorama
of life. As Shakespeare says, "All the world 's a stage, and all
the men and women merely players." Each acts his part and
says his lines, then passes off, giving place to another, that the
great drama may proceed and the whole picture be presented.
The individual, therefore, is fleeting, but his race goes on forever,
or as long as the balance of life is in its favor ; and one of the
duties of the individual is to help preserve that balance, which
he often does by surrendering his life.^

Among the lower species the grade of intelligence does not
enable the individual to see the plan or even to know the issues,
much less to anticipate its fate.^ Accordingly it derives its en-
joyment day by day in living its life, seeking its food, and
rearing its young as if it were to live forever, and when the un-
consciously approaching end comes — a brief struggle, lasting
but a moment, and all is over. So nature is, after all, happy, for
the tragedies of life are mostly unknown in advance, they pass
quickly when they come, and are soon softened if not forgotten.

If only the fittest survive, then will the next generation be
bom of highly selected parents, and so will the race progress.
This is evolution ; and whatever the place of the individual in
the scheme, the race as a whole is bound to advance. Though

1 In the time of war men do not count their Hves in the struggle to preserve
the nation or to repel invaders, any more than they have counted the cost of
human liberty.

2 As has been remarked already, the animal has no knowledge of death or
of the meaning of life. Man is probably the only one that has the slightest
intimation that life is limited.

68 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS

the plan seems heartless, it is, after all, beneficent, when we
regard the future and the coming generations as well as the
present and the individuals.

So there is another and a brighter picture. We humans have
been given a larger view of life than have the animals about us,
and while we cannot comprehend all the plan, we cheerfully
devote our lives not solely to our own enjoyment but also to
that larger service to mankind in general, to the end that future
generations may be the happier because of our having lived.
Just as we are realizing the advantages of what our forefathers
did for the world before us, so we make our contribution for
the benefit of those that shall come after us.

It is for us, therefore, to recognize the fact of this great war-
fare in nature, and in man's affairs as well, without permitting
it to embitter life ; and to order our own lives and their activities
to the advantage of the common good, getting our satisfaction
day by day as we go along in the consciousness of faculties well
employed, thankful after all for the opportunity to live, to enjoy
the world, to contribute our share to the great upward struggle
of the race, and to act our part and say our lines in the great
drama of existence, all of which is a part of the divine plan,
too large for our comprehension, just as the stars are too many
and too far away, and the universe too vast and too complicated,
for our understanding.^

In proportion as we see the distinction between the in-
dividual and the race, in that proportion will we understand
the true meaning of the ''great debt to nature," and we will
come to appreciate that the principle, " to him that hath shall
be given," is not so much for personal benefit as for the
general good.

1 This digression is made for the reason that many, especially young people,
not knowing thoroughly the field of evolution but stumbling upon a portion
of it by accident, are led to gloomy, short-sighted, and morbid views of life.
It is hoped that as the subject is further pursued, the discussion may make
clear many of the points which trouble the minds of many people often
through life.

THE WAY OF THE WILD 69

Significance of numbers. In so far as natural selection is a
contest between different species the question of relative numbers
is an important one, because the hazard of a good " fit " is greatly
reduced with increasing numbers. Rare and slow-multiplying
species not only run the chance of few good fits with the environ-
ment, but they recover slowly after disastrous experiences.

The stronghold of insect life is their rapid reproduction. A
succession of adverse seasons may seem to have almost, if not
quite, exterminated some troublesome species, but a few espe-
cially hardy and resistant individuals manage to live over, and,
with their rapid breeding powers, soon produce a new stock even
more vigorous than before. This is improvement by natural
selection. In this way adversity is good for the species, —
though fatal to most individuals, — and, providing only enough
can live through to restock the region, the species will be rapidly
modified by the selective process.

When it is a troublesome insect or weed that is involved, we
are not interested in its prosperity, but the same principle applies
to valuable species even in domestication. For example, it is
the pigs that produce large litters whose descendants finally
constitute the herd, while some favorite may, from sheer lack of
breeding powers,^ leave nothing behind.

The perfectly wholesale production of seed by plants in gen-
eral is, to a considerable extent, an offset against their natural
disadvantage in being fixed as to habitat and unable to move
away from undesirable conditions to find better ones.

Significance of vigor and length of life. This is of even more
importance to the race than is rapid reproduction. The experi-
ences of life make the mature individual of higher usefulness
than the younger, especially with races in w^hich the young are
cared for and to some extent trained by the parents.

1 Farmers often fail to notice the operation of this principle, and keep many
breeding animals because they are favorites in form or have fine pedigrees,
when they are doing practically nothing as breeders. The herd will of course
consist of the descendants of prolific breeders, which alone can produce
numbers sufficient to afford material for good selection.

DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS

If the great problem in existence is the perpetuation of the
species, then the individual helps the object forward in either
one of two ways, — by reproduction to insure new numbers, or
by improving conditions of life, thus reducing selection and
lengthening existence.

The number of any race at any given time, therefore, is quite
as much dependent upon the length of life as it is upon the rate
of reproduction ; ^ indeed, many disappearing races of men are
slowly failing in the face of rapid reproduction because the in-
dividuals are not well enough conditioned to attain full and ripe
maturity and establish and maintain good conditions of life.

This principle is of special application in the breeding yards.
Suppose, for example, the farmer has three classes of cows of
different degrees of fertility, — one that will raise but two calves,
one that will raise four, and one that will raise six, before they
die or stop breeding ; and suppose, for sake of the illustration,
that the descendants will do the same respectively. Remem-
bering now that only half the descendants will be females, let
us see how the account would stand with these three classes
of cows and their descendants, say, at the end of the fifth
generation .2

The Meaning of Relative Fertility

Classes

Female
offspring

Generations

First

Second

Third Fourth

Fifth

First

Second . . .

Third ....

243

It is easy to see that cows of the third class and their de-
scendants would not only soon constitute the herd but afford
abundant material for selection in the meantime. It is so with

1 Race suicide that is now so much talked about is not so much a matter of
the size of families as is commonly supposed ; it is quite as much involved in
the matter of health and long life. 2 gge " Principles of Breeding," p. 199.

THE WAY OF THE WILD 7 1

wild species ; the new generations and, in the end, the stable
stock is constantly arising, not from the general mass, but
from a few exceptional family lines of great vigor, long life,
and fair fecundity.^

Significance of offensive and defensive weapons. It has been
remarked before that man is the only animal able to use weapons
other than those with which nature endowed him. Some of
these natural endowments are, however, remarkable both in
their character and their usefulness.

It is natural for any intelligent being to make use of any part
that will help either in defending himself from his enemies or
in assisting him in taking his food. In this essential business
some make use of one part, others of other parts.

In general, the extremities are likely to be covered with hard
and often more or less sharp or cutting parts. If so, they are
exceedingly useful to the possessor as means of inflicting injury
by blows, puncture, or tearing. Horns, hoofs, teeth, and toe-
nails are mighty weapons on the earth, and when the same
species happens to have two or three of these natural weapons
well developed at the same time, he is a formidable enemy. A
notable instance is found in the tiger and the cat family generally.
The grizzly bear has both tooth and claw terribly developed, but
his claws are not retractable, and he is incapable of the stealth
of the tiger.2

Not all species are armed with such terrible weapons, though
every one has some advantage sufficient to enable it to secure

1 It is so with people. Comparatively few individuals alive now will be in
any way represented in the blood lines that people the world five hundred or
even one hundred years from now. The people then living will trace their
ancestry to a few of the most vigorous and virile, but not necessarily the most
prolific, of existing families. The future of the human as well as other species
depends quite as much upon quality and longevity as upon numbers.

2 Enthusiastic amateur students of natural history often descant upon the
beneficence of nature in thus providing her children with certain means of
getting food, forgetting, it must be, the interests of the victim and assuming
a partiality between the species that does not exist. Nothing was made es-
pecially to be eaten, nor are all the favors bestowed on a few species (see a
later paragraph on Design in nature).

72 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS

its food, else it would not have persisted ; and species not so
endowed, of which there have been many, have long since
disappeared from the earth. It is only when the food is alive
and able to fight or run that weapons of offense are useful
except to rival males in battle. Herbivorous animals, like cattle,
and vegetarians generally do not need weapons of offense and
commonly do not possess them, though there are abundant
exceptions.

The ostrich, for example, has no need of weapons of offense
and its great speed constitutes sufficient defense ; yet it can use
its strong leg to advantage as a weapon in striking. The giraffe
is without weapons, offensive or defensive, and cannot exist in
the presence of enemies except those he can outrun. The ele-
phant's trunk is primarily useful as a feeder, but he uses it upon
occasion as a weapon of terrible execution.

For the most part the snake has no weapon but his teeth.
Some paralyze by venom, but most of them are comparatively
helpless, having no extremities but a harmless head and a use-
less tail. If, as in most cases, they are armed with incurving
teeth, the victim once caught cannot well get away ; but in gen-
eral the snake must swallow the prey alive or kill it in the only
way possible, namely, by crushing with its own body, — a most
awkward but terribly effective way of getting on.

A few animals like the skunk are able to discharge an offen-
sive secretion to a considerable distance and thus manage to
secure a pretty wide berth. Others, like the hyena, ^ can dis-
charge a liquid not particularly offensive but directed with con-
siderable accuracy and disconcerting effect.

A few lucky fellows like the hedgehog, whose custom it is to
let others alone, are so provided that they can roll themselves
into a ball and defy the world. Others, like the squirrel, not
so endowed must show a clean pair of heels.

1 Said to be the only animal that hates everything and everybody, itself
included. Practically incapable of taming, ft never forms friends among either
animals or attendants.

THE WAY OF THE WILD 73

Some utterly useless species are well protected. The miser-
able little grass, Danthonia spicata, that grows freely over New
England hills is thickly studded at the base of the stem with
short but sharp hairy spines that cattle avoid. The nettle is
covered with fine needlelike hairs which on contact discharge
minute bits of acid capable of giving a burning sensation to
people and thin-skinned offenders, but useless with most wild
animals. The thistle, however, has a weapon worth while.

Speaking generally, weapons of offense or defense, especially
the former, are good things to have, and when present are gen-
erally made the most of ; but when absent another way is sought,
and if one good enough is found, the species can be successfully
preserved without weapons, as is the case with the antelope and
deer, which are the gentlest of animals.

It is notable, however, that the character or part on which
the species depends most for its existence is most highly de-
veloped, even though in other respects the animal or plant may
be very defective. This, of course, is due to the fact that the
effects of natural selection have been long felt in that particular
part, while others have been neglected and left undeveloped. In
this connection compare the remarkably efficient trunk of the
elephant with his exceedingly awkward feet, which belong not
to this but to prehistoric times, and have remained practically
undeveloped and unchanged since the earliest ages.

Space could be filled indefinitely with this vast and most in-
teresting phase of the subject. The important point is, however,
to note the fact that while weapons are convenient they are not
indispensable, and that some species that have the least use for
them have some of the best ones, — bees, for example, — though
whether in remote times they may have been more useful we
can hardly say with confidence, because sometimes a sudden
change in the surroundings renders useless a part that before
was next to indispensable. Fig. 10 represents a tropical butter-
fly that spends much of its time on stakes and stubs where it is
practically indistinguishable from the lichens, especially as it has

DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS

the habit of resting with its wings spread flat and not folded
back, as is characteristic of most species of the butterfly.

Significance of protective coloring and markings. Quite akin
to the utiUty of weapons is the whole matter of protective color-
ing. By this is meant in general that color or an assemblage
of colors which so blends with the surroundings as to make
creatures inconspicuous on the one hand, or, on the other, to
look like something which they are not, as, for example, when
an insect or animal is colored similar to the ground or the foli-
age it inhabits, or when it looks like another species that is

Fig. io. Lower and upper surface respectively of Ageronia feronia (author's
specimen) ; general color, a greenish gray

commonly dreaded and avoided. Such utility is mainly defen-
sive, though on occasion it might facilitate the approach of an
animal upon its prey.

At close range the high colors — red, green, blue, etc. — stand
out distinctly, but in the distance all colors tend to blend into a
theoretical white, in fact, a dirty gray, as may be noted when
viewing a distant scene where the earth and sky line meet
almost imperceptibly.^ Artists know this fact and use the grays
for distant effects except when under strong sunlight.

This explains why so many animals that live more or less in
the open are of a dirty brown or gray color. Of all shades it is

1 On the principle that all colors taken together make white. In nature all
colors do not exist in proper proportions and the general result is a gray.

THE WAY OF THE WILD 75

most inconspicuous in the greatest variety of surroundings.^
Thus deer and moose feed in safety both in winter and summer
where they would be in far more danger if their coats were red
or black ; indeed, adaptation has gone so far in these animals
that the coat is lighter in winter than in summer, and thus
blends still better as the foliage gives place to snow.

The most highly colored birds are those that live among the
foliage and flowers of the tropics. Snakes and lizards closely
imitate the dull colors of the grounds they infest, and while
the resemblance is not close, it is more effective than would at
first seem possible. Many insects are as green as the leaves
they sit upon, often for no other reason than that the green
chlorophyll from the leaves they have eaten shows through
the thin texture of their bodies. Others, like these shown in
Fig. I o, are variously colored in close resemblance to their most
frequent habitat.

Mimicry. Closely akin to protective coloring is mimicry ;
indeed, mimicry is the idea of protection carried a step further,
in which the resemblance is not so much to the background as
to some other specific object.

On the border line of the two is the peculiar marking of the
zebra, the tiger, and the leopard, which at first thought would
seem to make them conspicuous. However, the facts are that
such a striped or spotted animal lies well hidden in the thicket
or the jungle, fpr the peculiar markings and outlines of his body
are not quickly distinguishable from the lights and shadows
which the sunshine casts about him.

True mimicry, however, is more exact, and some cases are
quite remarkable. Of all created things butterflies are able to
show the best cases of mimicry from their remarkable colora-
tion and from the general resemblance of the structure of their
wings to that of leaves. For an example of color mimicry refer

^ This is the reason why the United States has abandoned the blue uni-
form and. the British the red for the dirty-looking but really serviceable and
inconspicuous khaki.

76 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS

again to Fig. lo. Like most colored insects this butterfly pre-
fers localities colored like himself, and he often lights and sits
for a considerable time on trees and poles more or less covered
with lichens, from which he is indistinguishable except on the
closest scrutiny.

This is true mimicry. The remarkable part of this particular
case is the habit of lighting and the manner of sitting. The
butterflies as a rule fold the wings together on the back im-
mediately upon lighting, but this particular species, instead of
folding the wings, spreads them flat and sits with them in that
position. The resemblance to the lichen is not very exact, but

Fig. II. Lower and upper surface respectively of Ancea phidile (author's
specimen), a tropical butterfly of the color of a dead leaf

it is close in a general way, and the writer has often studied
for some minutes to find the specimen and make out the
outlines even when he had seen the creature in the very act
of lighting.

Mimicry in structure is illustrated by another butterfly, which,
with its wings folded together, exhibits a venation quite like
that of a small leaf of the beech or similar tree. Being of a
brown color, its resemblance to a dead leaf is close. It has two
very different methods of lighting. Commonly it folds its wings
not after lighting but before, in which case it flutters to the
ground not unlike a dead leaf falling from the tree. In other
cases it lights directly upon twigs or stems, in which instance it

THE WAY OF THE WILD ^^

lights as would any other species, but stands with the hinder
points of its wings close to the stem, the other portion standing
out like a dead leaf not yet fallen. The peculiar long-drawn-
out point at the rear of the wing, from its close resemblance to
the stem of the leaf, heightens the deception (see Fig. 1 1).

Instances could be multiplied indefinitely showing how one
form in nature imitates or more properly resembles another,
generally to the advantage of one or the other, if not of both.
For example, certain flies without stings closely resemble bumble-
bees, not only in general appearance but also in manner of flight.
The resemblance might be closer, but it no doubt is some ad-
vantage to the impostor and insures him a wider berth from
boys, at least until they learn the imposition, after which its
advantage is a matter of doubt, as any boy can testify who has
had the satisfaction of tormenting '' shade bumblebees."

Design in nature. The consistent student must not interpret
these and similar facts too literally. The hasty observer and
careless writer sees *' design " in every detail. The fact is that
in nature there are many resemblances of structure between
widely separated species, and it is inevitable that similarities
should occur. When once they happen to be of selective value,
then natural selection rapidly shapes them up and makes the
resemblance closer still.

For example, the flat, thin structure of the leaf requires some
system of ribs and veins for its support. The wing of the
butterfly has the same structural necessity and for the same
mechanical reason. The two structures, therefore, the one plant
and the other animal, are built and must be built upon a similar
plan. It is inevitable, therefore, that there should be many close
structural resemblances, and as the butterfly takes his initial
color from the green of the leaf, these resemblances are often
still further heightened by remarkable color effects. In many
ways, therefore, butterflies resemble foliage.

Causes of color in animals and plants. The world owes no
little of its beauty to the range and variety of color of its plants

jS DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS

and animals, and it is worth the while to note briefly how nature
produces such marvelous effects in such natural ways.^

Colors of animals and plants are due to the following distinctly
different causes :

I . The manufacture of specific coloring materials or pigments
either as a necessary part of the body activities or as a matter
of accident. For example, the universal green color of plants is
due to chlorophyll, the blue of which fades as the leaf ages or
yields to the influence of cold, leaving the yellow behind to char-
acterize the foliage of autumn. ^ The green of birds is due to
a specific pigment with no physiological function like that of
chlorophyll ; it is a color never found in mammals.

Red, on the other hand, is widely diffused among both plants
and animals. The red color of blood is due always to haemo-
globin, a substance also produced by a great variety of organisms.
Red pigments, however, are produced by plants, especially in the
flowering parts and in the leaves of certain species, rarely during
the growing period, but more commonly late in the season.

Yellow, whether in plant or animal, is the result of an oily
pigment, and the three pigments, yellow, blue, and red, in vary-
ing proportions and distribution are capable of producing about
every color found in nature, though browns, blacks, and even
occasionally whites are the result of specific pigment.^

1 We have a habit of mind which leads us to feel that when an event or
occurrence is known to be natural, then all mystery is cleared away. This
attitude of mind is wrong, and it deprives us of some of our chief opportunities
for higher meditation. We plant a seed and it grows into a tree. We say,
" There is no mystery in that, — it was natural"; but the truth is that if we really
consider all that has happened, we shall see that a greater miracle has been
performed than the making of the dumb to speak, the blind to see, or even the
raising of a man from the dead. With all of our philosophy and all of our
science we know nothing about life, — whence it comes or how it works ; we
only know some of the things it does.

2 The student is reminded that green is not a primary color, but a mixture
of yellow and blue.

^ The student will remember that the so-called three-color process of print-
ing succeeds in reproducing practically all colors by the proper mingling of
these three primaries — red, yellow, and blue. Nature does the same.

THE WAY OF THE WILD 79

2. Closely akin to this is a second cause of color, namely, a
body surface so delicate and transparent that the color of the
creature is fixed by that of the internal parts, as in certain earth-
worms, in which the color is due to the blood showing through
the transparent skin, while in related species a dark surface pig-
ment obscures the blood and gives its own color to the worm.
In other cases, as frequently in larvae, which do not have red
blood, the contents of the digestive tract show through the skin
and give color to the insect. In this way all leaf-feeding larvae
that have transparent skins are green in color ; that is, they look
green, though that which gives the color is only the chlorophyll
of their food.

3. Very similar to the above is a class of cases in which the
pigment, instead of being fixed at the surface, as in hair or skin,
is contained in irregular-shaped cells extending from the surface
to considerable depths beneath the skin. When the creature is
at rest or in its normal conditions, the pigment lies near the
surface and gives its color to the animal ; but if it be paralyzed
with sudden fright, the surface layers of the skin contract and
drive the coloring matter into the deeper layers and out of sight,
so that the creature undergoes a blanching process quite akin
to the sudden paling of the face when the blood is driven out
of the surface veins by sudden fright.

4. A fourth cause of color, especially in animals, is the storing
away in the cells of the body of certain waste materials taken in
with the food and not digested or otherwise eliminated from the
body. A common example of this is the color of many butter-
flies whose larvae feed freely upon leaves. If the chlorophyll is
not digested or otherwise changed, it is packed away, especially
in the cells of the wings, either uniformly or in more or less
regular patterns dependent on the structure. In such a case
the butterfly would necessarily be green.

If, however, it should secrete some material that would dis-
solve out the blue part of the green, either wholly or in part, the
butterfly would be yellow, either all over or in spots. If, however.

8o DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS

the yellow should be dissolved away, then the creature would
be blue, either wholly or partially, unless indeed it should
also secrete red pigment, which would then discharge its own
function in fixing tints which, with the blue, would extend to
violet or even black.

Another very different case of the same order is the white or
light color quite common to the under scales of snakes and
lizards, an effect due principally to the storage there of lime, as
we store the same substance in our bones, coming in both cases
from the food. With them it is a thoroughly waste product, as
it is with us late in life after the bones are finished, when it
often makes trouble by collecting in the bladder or kidneys in
the form of small stones.

5. The scintillating effect like the metallic luster of certain
plumage is due not to pigment but to strictly mechanical causes.
In the humming bird, for instance, the surface of the feathers
is covered with minute striae, which, by their unequal reflection
and slight refraction of the light rays, give that beautiful play of
colors with which we are all familiar, and which is not greatly
different in its character from the play of colors in pearl, which
is also due to the fact that the pearl consists of exceedingly
thin laminae laid one upon another.

6. There is still one more cause of coloration worth mention-
ing here. In a desert where everything is of a dull gray there
is practically no white light, because certain rays are absorbed
by the universal monotony of nature. If there is no white
light, then nothing will appear in its natural colors, but every-
thing will appear to be of a dull gray, because there are no
other colors at hand to be reflected to the eye, just as in an
artificial red light everything appears red^ no matter what its
color might be in perfect light, because there are no other rays
to be reflected.

The student needs to be exceedingly careful, therefore, in
generalizing about color markings and utility. The color, es-
pecially of animals, is often highly protective, and then natural

THE WAY OF THE WILD 8 1

selection tends to make it more so. On the other hand, the
color may be unfortunate, in which case the species will go
through the world with a perpetual handicap, except as selection
is able to tone it down and relieve it of some of its hardship.

Color is not based upon utility, nor is it dependent for its
function upon the presence of light. Some of the most brilliantly
colored fishes reside in the depths of the sea, so remote that no
ray of light ever reaches them. Everything must have some
relation to light and therefore will have some color when brought
into its rays. If it reflects them all, it will be white ; if it absorbs
them all and reflects none, it will be black ; if it absorbs all but
the red, it will reflect those rays and we will call it red ; if it
absorbs the red and reflects only the yellow and the blue, we will
call it green, and so on with the infinite changes and combinations
that result through the relations of absorption and reflection.

So we might go on indefinitely, showing how fits and adapta-
tions, with startling accuracy, arise after all in perfectly natural,
not to say inevitable, ways. These details are not the result of
design but of accident.^ The design lies much farther back in
the great scheme of life, infinitely more complex and wonderful
than these details that strike our attention, and which exhibit
rather the variety of nature's design than a deliberate intent at
duplication or a determination to favor one species over another.

With this glimpse into the way of the wild we are prepared
for a somewhat detailed discussion of the principal facts involved
in the further adaptation of animals and plants to the needs and
purposes of man.

1 Those who might be inclined to object to the statement that every detail
in nature is in a large sense accidental should consider such cases as the sloth,
which is a grayish green in his natural haunts, but in captivity gradually loses
the greenish tinge and fades out to a dull gray. The reason of this is that the
greenish tinge was originally no part of the sloth, but was due to the green
chlorophyll of the minute algae that are enabled to live upon its hair, the
moist climate and the sluggish habits of the creature being both favorable to
the vegetable growth. Any number of equally striking instances could be
given to show that color is in its origin largely accidental. Of course under
natural selection only the more favorable cases could survive.

82 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS

Summary. Infinitely more individuals are born into the world than can
possibly find room and food. This sets up a struggle for food and room
and the right to live, under which the fittest alone survive to reproduce
their kind.

In this way the race is modified or improved, because each succeeding
generation is born, not from average individuals, but from those that are
best able to meet the demands. If conditions remain constant, in a few gen-
erations the " fit " becomes close ; but if the conditions change, the standard
of fitness and selection changes also, which necessarily results in a modi-
fication of the race in a new direction, the principle being that whatever
happens to individuals, the race as a whole will respond to selectiott from
whatever standard adtninistered. This is the principle on which the
breeder operates, though his standards of selection are the ones that meet
his needs, and may not be the same as those of nature.

Exercises. 1. Estimate the number of seeds in a robust plant of purslane,
pigweed, or plantain.

2. Ascertain the number of kernels on a single ear of corn, and calcu-
late how long it would take one ear to produce seed enough to plant the
entire state.

3. Outline the causes that prevent the unlimited increase of various
species, especially man and the animals and plants most closely related to
his affairs.

4. Make original studies into the different methods by which the most
troublesome weeds persist in spite of our most persistent efforts to eradicate
them ; for example, Canada thistle, morning-glory, ragweed, purslane.

5. How is it that weeds " come up " in new lands never before culti-
vated, and what are the various ways by which birds and other animals
carry weed seeds ?

6. Go to the fields and observe the various ways by which seeds trans-
port themselves, especially by wind and water. Make studies of definite
species and describe carefully their habits of seed distribution ; for example,
wild cherry, thisde, cocklebur.

References. 1. " Origin of Species " (especially chaps, iii and iv). Darwin.

2. " Darwiniana." Asa Gray.

3. " Darwinism." Wallace.

4. " Color of Animals." Beddard.

CHAPTER VI
EFFECT OF NATURAL SELECTION

Natural selection means progressive development • Effect of selection upon
the individual ■ Selection good for the species that can endure it • Selection
fatal to a race that cannot endure its hardships • Interest of the individual
and the race not identical • A close fit between a species and its environment
is inevitable • Apparent exceptions due to absence of severe selection •
Adaptation not necessarily perfect • Our standards of selection differ from
those of nature • Not all the results of natural selection are useful to us •
Our standards often require much readjustment of domesticated species •
Natural selection always at work • Power of selection to modify type

Natural selection means progressive development. Natural
selection and the survival of the fittest mean progressive develop-
ment for the species, because each new generation is born, not
from an average, but from a highly selected parentage, limited
to the few that best fit the conditions of life as a whole. This
means that each new generation is a little better born than the
last, and that the '' fit " becomes a little closer with each genera-
tion, till it becomes approximately perfect if conditions remain
constant, all of which is to be counted an improvement of the
species as measured by natural standards.

For example, the bills of woodpeckers are bound to become
a little longer and a little better adapted to the needs so long
as selection continues, because all below a certain standard are
being constantly exterminated. Moreover, in many cases, the
standard of selection is likely to rise as time goes on, working
still further improvement. Thus deer and wolves frequently
run wild in the same regions. The deer live upon vegetation,
but the wolves live upon the deer. Both depend on their legs,
the one for pursuit, the other for protection. Under conditions
such as these, the slow and the crippled deer would be first

84 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS

killed off, and the fleetest would go scot free. On the other
hand, the fleetest wolves would be best fed and the laggards
would die of hunger. In this way both species would develop
high speed and great wariness, and this development would pro-
gress further and further as the competition grew keener with
each passing generation. The horse has almost certainly come
up through a similar experience in ages past.

Effect of selection upon the individuaL This effect is two-
fold. First of all, it sharpens the wits of the individual if he
has any, and develops to the utmost whatever faculties he may
possess. If by this he is able to withstand the competition, he is
in every way the better for it.

If, however, as generally happens where the selective process
is severe, it is only the few that are able to withstand, then the
masses will go down in the struggle ; so that the total effects
of selection may be said to be hard upon all but the few individ-
uals, and its chief advantage is to the race as a whole.

Selection good for the species that can endure it. By this we
mean that if a number of individuals sufficient to keep up the
population are able to meet the demands of selection, then the
species will rapidly progress ; and up to this point the more
severe the selection the better for the race. This is an impor-
tant distinction in all evolution that should never be forgotten,
for it is only when undergoing severe selection that species
change much in their characters from generation to generation.

Next to sudden calamity the greatest misfortune that can
happen to a species or a race is a long succession of easy times,
when the whole population settles down to a dead level of inac-
tivity. Then are the days of extinction imminent, for matters
will not always run in an accustomed rut, and when the days of
sudden and unaccustomed changes come, they are likely to find
things unprepared.

Selection fatal to a race that cannot endure its hardships.
It matters little to the race what happens to individuals, so long
as a sufficient number prosper. It is vital, however, that a

EFFECT OF NATURAL SELECTION 85

sufficient number do prosper, for it is upon them that the
succession depends.

If the conditions are so hard or the individuals so far below the
standard that none, or at most but very few, can meet the demands
of the struggle, then, of course, are the days of the species num-
bered, and thousands of races like millions of individuals have
met these conditions and gone down under them since the world
was young. We speak of these as extinct species, but who knows
what buried possibilities were lost in the dim past when the ele-
mental energies were at work laying the foundations of things ?

Interest of the individual and the race not identicaL In this
way we fully realize that the interests of the race are not identi-
cal, indeed are often at variance, with those of the individual.

This is true, however, only for the existing generation, be-
cause the interests of future individuals are involved with those
of the race, and whatever benefits the race as a whole is good
for future individuals, just as we all, in these days, are happier
for the bloodshed and self-sacrifice of the thousands of our fore-
fathers who gave themselves up in labor and in war to make
the world a better place in which to live.

In the struggles of a race with or against its environment
one or the other must yield. With intelligent and powerful
beings like men it is often possible to modify the conditions of
life and not submit to the necessity of its hardships. When,
however, this is impossible, either by reason of the rigidity of
conditions or the helplessness of the race, then nothing remains
but that the species as a whole should bow to the inevitable
and bend its characters to conditions it cannot break. Here the
sacrifice of individuals of one generation is fully compensated
in the next, so that in the long run the interests of the race and
the individuals that compose it are identical.

A close fit between a species and its environment is inevitable.
This rapid shaping of a species in harmony with its surround-
ings is bound to bring about a close "fit" between a species and
the peculiar circumstances by which it is surrounded.

86 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS

It could not well be otherwise, certainly in so far as vital
particulars are concerned. If the bill is a little too short or too
soft to reach the worm as he burrows deeper, then it will be
promptly lengthened, not in short-billed individuals but in the
descendants of those with longer bills. If the marking of the
butterfly is similar to a leaf or a lichen, then those individuals
in which the resemblance is closest will profit most and the
similarity will grow closer. If the relations between two species
happen to be mutually beneficial, then those relations will be still
better perfected in future generations by the selective process,
till possibly they may become essential to the existence of one
or the other, if not of both.

For example, certain moths have the habit of laying their
eggs only upon particular plants, then of gathering a pellet of
pollen off the flowers and storing it near the egg as food for
the young larva, thereby pollinating the flower,^ Some of these
"fits" seem unaccountable except on the basis of intelligence or
design, but when we remember not only the very low intelligence
of the moth, but also the fact that she never sees the outcome of
it all, since she will be dead before her own eggs hatch, the role
of intelligence is eliminated. When also we remember that
some of the best fits are peculiarly fatal to one of its members, we
rule out design, for nature is not partial as between its creatures.^

Apparent exceptions due to absence of severe selection. The
fit is often notably bad, as when the moth flies into the candle,
impelled by an instinct it cannot control,^ but to which it

1 See the case of the yucca moth described in " Principles of Breeding,"
p. 105, which see also for a general discussion of Instinct, pp. 386-404.

2 Ofttimes the insect's egg is laid inside the body of another creature, which
is necessarily fatal, just as the fact that the best temperature and conditions
for tuberculosis happen to fit alarmingly close with that of cattle (102°) and
the extremely insanitary way in which many of them are kept in our hot and
close basement barns. Surely this is not design, nor is it especially beneficent,
for the tubercle bacillus certainly cannot have interests worth consideration,
even if we disregard those of our cattle and our own as well. The fit is, never-
theless, close and complete.

* See '* Principles of Breeding," pp. 394-397, for a discussion of the causes
of instinctive acts.

EFFECT OF NATURAL SELECTION Sj

responds at the cost of its life. Manifestly this is because of
unusual conditions, for if there were very many naked lights in
the world, relatively speaking, these moths would become ex-
tinct unless there were a sufficient number of individuals with-
out this fatal instinct to keep the numbers good, in which case
a new and real fit would be developed. The cause of the
present misfit is of course due to the fact that the fatal selection
is too rare to greatly affect the species ; that is, the selection is
not severe upon the species because, relatively speaking, it is
not frequently exercised.

The foot of the elephant has been mentioned as a disadvan-
tage. The immense branching horns of the stag are certainly
far from being advantageous to him, or even a good fit with
his brushy environment, with which they frequently become
entangled. Many a stag has gone down to his death because
his horns became entangled in the thicket or locked with those
of an adversary, and many pairs of antlers are found lying be-
tween two skeletons, mute witnesses of the final death struggle
in which the cause of the tragedy was the unfortunate horns
that are commonly supposed to be protective.

The present point is, that while this is far from a good fit,
yet the fatal consequences do not follow with sufficient frequency
to affect the species. But few males are needed to perpetuate
the species, and the small number that lose their lives by means
of their unfortunate horns can well be spared, for they will not
be needed in the propagation of the new generation. As will be
readily seen, defects in females are much more dangerous to
species than are defects in males.

Adaptation not necessarily perfect. The fit between various
species and their environment, and the adaptation of their parts
to the surrounding conditions, are not, therefore, necessarily
perfect. It must be good enough to insure abundance of offspring
for the next generation, and that is enough. Any race, therefore,
can endure any handicap up to this point and prosper, and that
is why natural selection carries improvement up to a certain point

88 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS

and stops. Nature does not aim at perfection, but every species
is just as good as competition makes it, and no better.

Writers when discussing this topic often overstate the facts.
They are impressed by the niceties of adjustment so frequently
seen in nature, and rush to the assumption that everything is
perfectly adjusted and perfectly adaptive. It is better to under-
stand that upon the whole characters are and must be highly
but not perfectly adaptive ; that such adaptations are achieved
at great distress to individuals and temporary danger to the
species^ and that they will never be more numeroics or closer
than circumstances compel ; so that each species generally sur-
vives with one or m,ore handicaps^ in which the fatalities are
not sufficient to force a fit upon the one hand or bring about
extinction iLpon the other.

Looked at in this way, the animals and plants of the forest as
we see them, even in a state of nature, represent a choice but
not a perfect lot, bom, upon the whole, as they are, from a
highly selected though not perfect ancestry ; that is, from the
standpoint of nature these species were already highly bred
when first domesticated by our forefathers.

Our standards of selection differ from those of nature. In
nature selection is based only on the struggle for existence.
Nothing avails that does not bear upon the supreme issue of
mere ability to live and reproduce fast enough to keep ahead of
the death rate and thus maintain the balance of life in favor
of the species. Natural selection is thus based on anything and
everything that affects the mere question of life, death, and
reproduction, and nothing else. It secures, of course, great vigor,
comparatively long life,i and at least a reasonable degree of
fecundity together with the extreme development of whatever
physical part or trait of character is directly concerned with the
preservation and sustenance of life, and there it will stop.

^ See Fig. 12. This is the same burro shown on page 7 in his working out-
fit, when engaged in building the Pikes Peak Railroad many years ago. His
labors are done and he is now kept for photographic purposes. He illustrates
the longevity of rare individuals.

EFFECT OF NATURAL SELECTION

Our selection begins, therefore, where natural selection leaves
off, and it aims to secure also the development of some part or
faculty that is of special value to us. For example, nature would
develop a sharp horn in cattle and perfect the instinct to hide
the young at birth, ^ but it would not develop the milking process
to a very high degree for the reason that almost any cow in a
state of nature could give enough milk to satisfy her calf.

Fig. 12. Old Dick, now fifty-six years old

Natural selection develops the speed and endurance of horses,
as also, very likely, their vision and the quality of the hoof, but
it does not develop the size we need for draft purposes, nor
bring out the action nor the teachableness we desire for driv-
ing purposes.

The agility of sheep and goats is rather overdeveloped in
nature for our purposes, but the fineness of the fleece and length

1 Every farmer boy knows that the cow will hide her calf, and if conditions
are at all favorable, it will take a good hunt to find it.

90 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS

of staple needs further attention. It was good enough for them,
but nothing attainable is too good for us, in our opinion
at least.

In nature, if a plant seeds freely it will probably survive, and
it makes little difference whether all or only a few individuals
seed abundantly, but when we raise a crop we desire an abun-
dant yield, and to secure this every individual plant should do
its share. In domestication we want no laggards.

Fruits and flowers may easily be sufficiently sweet and juicy,
or showy and fragrant to be attractive to animals and insects,
and thus secure the essential points of fertilization and distri-
bution ; but with our refined sensibilities and educated tastes we
require and exact the finest flowers, the most delicate colors, and
the most delicious fragrance that can be produced by the most
discriminating selection.

Not all the results of natural selection are useful to us. Some
of the achievements of natural selection do not commend them-
selves to our favor, as, for example, when the seeds of the stipa
grass, with their sharp and barbed points adapted to boring and
their twisted, crooked tails adapted to pushing and twisting, get
upon our animals and enter the flesh. Then our admiration for
the fine adaptations of nature is turned to alarm, as it is when
the botfly torments our horse to hatch her young in his stomach,
or the yellow-fever germ enters our blood by way of the bite ^
of the mosquito.

Even some of our most useful species bring with them certain
traits highly developed by natural selection, which are worse than
useless for our purposes. For example, the extreme timidity
of the horse, akin to that of the deer and the antelope, is useful
to him in nature, no doubt, but for our purpose we should like
to exchange it for the quiet confidence of the dog, which is born
of boldness rather than of timidity and is toned down by associa-
tion with his master. As it is, we must develop the confidence
of the horse against his natural instincts.

1 It is needless to remark that the mosquito does not truly bite.

EFFECT OF NATURAL SELECTION

We should be glad to be rid of the sharp horn, the surly
disposition, and the fighting nature of bulls. We domesticated
the race for its milk and its meat, not for its fighting qualities,
but were forced to take these undesirable traits into the bar-
gain, like a job lot at auction, and they have made us no little
trouble ever since. We are beginning now to cut off these
emblems of savagery, these weapons ^ of the woods, and still
more sensibly to breed them off. The latter must, from the
nature of the case, be a somewhat gradual process, particularly
as our best breeds are so well fixed in other characteristics.

Our standards often require much readjustment of domesti-
cated species. Having domesticated a species because of some
valuable natural quality, we often institute conditions of life quite
different from those under which the quality was developed and
under which the species has lived, all of which make necessary
the most radical readjustments on the part of the species in order
to meet the new conditions and still maintain its natural faculties,
not impaired, but improved if possible.

The pig affords the most conspicuous example of this change
in conditions of life without change in our demands. We
domesticated him solely for his flesh, which is exceedingly rich
in fat.^ In his wild state the pig lives an active woods life, sub-
sisting on roots, nuts, and a little flesh when he can get it. He
is, for example, an expert snake hunter, setting his feet on the

1 The cruelty of cutting off horns has been greatly overrated. The horn is
comparable not to the bone but to the finger nail, being an outgrowth of the
skin merely. The practice of dehorning is mild as compared with the shock-
ing and useless barbarity of docking horses. Every horn that is cut off pre-
vents vastly more injury and misery than it causes.

2 The ground hog or woodchuck during the summer lays on a great store
of fat and during winter hibernates, that is, sleeps almost continuously, main-
taining a low degree of vital activities at slight expense of food materials, which
is met from the store of fat under his skin, just as the turnip or the beet sends
up its seed stalk and ripens its crop from the food material stored in the root.
The pig, like the bear, is a kind of half hibernator, that is, with a good store
of fat he can endure long periods of scarcity and even go a considerable time
without food, as has been learned when pigs have been accidentally confined
under straw stacks for a number of weeks.

92 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS

animal with great skill and at once ripping up the body with
the teeth and tusks.

In domestication 'we change all this. We shut him up in
a close little pen in the open sun, away from water, and feed
him mostly on grain, or, in cases of extra care, on mush, perhaps
cooked and steaming hot. Now the pig cannot sweat. He has
no glands for the purpose. In nature he lives in the shade and
runs to the river when oppressed by heat. He is not used to an
exclusive diet of seeds, and has never accustomed himself to
hot soup and steaming mush. He has not been selected on
that basis, and what wonder that he makes the most of any water
or even mud that he can reach, doing his best with snout and
tusk to bury himself in the ground, and snapping greedily at
alfalfa or clover hay pasture grass, or anything else that will help
to restore the conditions to which he had been accustomed by long
generations of selection ! We must either change our habits of
keeping the pig, as the best farmers are doing, or he will be
obliged to radically change his nature, which will take much time
and be exceedingly expensive to us, for it costs dearly to make
over a species in respect to fundamental characters.

Again, we often add a requirement or two to the natural
qualities which led to domestication, all of which will of course
require no little readjustment of the nature of the species in
order to meet new demands. For example, the chicken was
doubtless domesticated for her eggs and the sheep for its wool,
but we have made meat animals out of both. Beets were at first
cultivated as a toothsome vegetable, but later developed for the
sugar content, which vastly changed the nature of the plant, as
it required substantial addition to the leaf surface.^

So examples might be multiplied indefinitely to show how
we have added, and indeed are constantly adding, new require-
ments to our domesticated species, requiring additional selection,

1 Sugar is practically carbon and water, and this new demand fell heaviest
on the leaves, which, as has been explained, are the agents for fixing and bring-
ing into the plant the carbon from the carbon dioxide of the air.

EFFECT OF NATURAL SELECTION

not only to develop still further their naturally valuable qualities,
but to bring about more or less radical readjustments occasioned
and made necessary by these new demands of ours.

Natural selection always at work. We must not for a mo-
ment suppose that our domestication and the new standards of
breeding entirely do away with natural selection. In respect to
tooth and claw, of course selection stops the moment we make
warfare impossible, but in such
fundamental matters as constitu-
tional vigor, fecundity, and the
vital and reproductive faculties
natural selection never surren-
ders its hold upon a species.

Ofttimes we forget this and
are brought up standing by the
consequences. Sometimes our
standards of selection are unwit-
tingly at opposites with these
fundamental matters, and then
the shock and the lesson are
severe. For instance, many an
amateur breeder will select the
fattest and smoothest pigs for
breeding purposes, not knowing
that these are neither the most
prolific nor the hardiest. His

herd soon runs out. Natural selection has been at work day
and night to undermine his herd at the point of infertility.

Some very favorite strains of cattle or sheep are decidedly
'' shy breeders." If so, it may as well be understood that they
will go down under the relentless work of natural selection,
unless indeed the defect can be speedily remedied by finding
prolific strains among the favorites.

Power of selection to modify type. Selection can do far
more than develop a single type to conform to some single

Fig. 13. The passenger pigeon,

wild parent of all the domesticated

sorts that have been developed by

selection (see Figs. 14 and 15)

Fk;. 14, Types of pigeons developed from tlic rock or passenger pigeon
shown in Fig. 13

2, Barb; 3, Swallow; 4, Magpie; 5, Chinese owl; 6, English pouter; 7, Dragon;

8, Duchess; 9, Fantail ; 10, Maltese hen; 11, Frillback;

12, English carrier; 13, Morehead

Fig. 15. Additional types developed from the passenger pigeon, by selection

and breeding

14, White homers ; 15, Oriental frills ; 16, Fantails ; 17, Turbits ;
18, Birmingham tumblers ; 19, English sterlings ;

20, Russian trumpeters ;

21, Jacobins

96 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS

balance of natural condition of climate, room, and food supply.
If these fundameiitals are provided for, selection is able to
modify type in many directions at the same time, so that from
a single original stock a multitude of diverse forms may be
built up.

There are no better instances of this than the pigeon, the
many and diverse varieties of which have been bred within his-
toric times from the single primitive form, the wild or passenger
pigeon (see Fig. 13). Hardly second to this is the wonderful
variety in the different breeds of the dog, well known to all
observers.

If this can be done with these species, what a future of possi-
bilities is opened up for still further developing and improving
our animals and plants of field, orchard, and garden !

Summary. The marvelous effects of natural selection and its power to
modify type to fit the surroundings simply through the extermination of the
inferior individuals, suggests to man a means of still further adapting these
species to his own needs.

In nature the basis of selection is simply the power to live and repro-
duce fast enough to keep up with the death rate. Man, on the other hand,
is interested in something besides mere life and reproduction.

For example, he keeps the cow for her milk, and he is interested in the
amount she can give. In nature she needed only to give enough for the
calf, and that only until he could wholly or partly shift for himself. In do-
mestication, on the other hand, man considers the cow as a machine that
should give all the milk possible and give it continuously. Manifestly,
therefore, man must set up some additional standards of selection, and all
the evidence is that he does this ; the domestic cow reacts, and increases her
output. This does not mean that a poor cow can be made into a good one
by any process known to man, but does mean that if the dairyman breeds
only from his best cows, the calves will develop into a better lot, on the
average, than they would have been if he had bred from good, bad, and
indifferent.

This is artificial selection, copied after nature's plan. It has been prac-
ticed from the earliest times, and is the process that has produced about all
the improvement that has been made up to near the present day.

This plan of improvement by selection will be considered later in detail
under the head of systematic improvement of animals and of plants.

EFFECT OF NATURAL SELECTION

Meanwhile we leave it here to develop another and a newer method of
improvement, based on a more careful study and a more minute knowledge
of the real constitution of living beings.

Exercise. Give the history of some breed of domestic animal, — cattle,
horse, sheep, pig, dog, or chicken.

References. 1. "Types and Breeds of Farm Animals." Plumb.

2. " Dogcraft." Hachwalt.

3. '' Survival of the Unlike." Bailey.

CHAPTER VII
UNIT CHARACTERS

Unit of study • Species composed of definite characters • Every individual
possesses all the characters of the race • Characters developed and characters,
latent • Characters dominant and characters recessive • Correlation of charac-
ters • Lost characters • New characters • Characters and unit characters

Unit of Study. In attempting to discover the ultimate prin-
ciples involved in plant or animal improvement as we have
learned to understand it, the special object of study is not the
species as a whole nor even the individuals involved, but rather
the particular characters that give the species value to man, and
their relation to the general group of unit characters that com-
pose the race. This study is undertaken with the purpose of
developing a second method of improvement in addition to the
one by simple selection already outlined.

Species composed of definite characters. It requires a little
careful thought to fully realize that all species are composed of
very definite characters, — some more prominent than others,
some especially prominent in certain individuals and secondary
in others, and still others that might be included, for all we
know or can see, but that yet are never found.

For example, vertebrae and ribs are characters common to
many species, a hairy covering to vastly fewer, horns to fewer
yet, and smooth, sharp horns to very few. The short, smooth,
sharp horn, characteristic of the bison, and the large, flat,
corrugated one of the true buffalo are very different, the one
from the other, but each is found in no other species. There
is no evident reason why horses do not have horns like
most cattle, but the fact is that this character is absent in the
genus Equtis.

UNIT CHARACTERS

The limitation of unit characters is well brought out in respect
to color. Butterflies have black, white, red, green (with both its
constituents, yellow and blue), and almost all conceivable shades
and markings. Birds have the same, but with few cases of the
green. Cattle have black, white, red, and a kind of yellow
and blue, but no green. These colors combine, too, both in
spots and roans. Pigs have black, white, and red, in which
the combination is frequently spotted (piebald) but never roan.
Horses have black, white, and a kind of red, mixed in both
spots and roans, but no blue or green ; that is to say, color
characters are limited.

All this means that species are made up of certain definite
characters, and these characters run through and among the
individuals like colored threads in the warp and woof of cloth,
throwing up here one pattern and there another, according to
the relative intensity and frequency of the various units.

What is true of colors and color patterns is true of other
characters of the race, and the term '' unit character " is a good
one to designate these half-independent and half-dependent
assortments of physical features that go to make up the various
species in nature. It is upon these unit characters separately,
and not upon their composite effect, that the attention should
now be fixed.

Every individual possesses all the characters of the race.
After being convinced that no two individuals are alike, it is
easy to assume that they differ in the particular unit characters
they possess. This is a mistake. Every individual possesses all
the characters of the race to which he belongs, whether they
are evident or not, whether they are developed or undeveloped.
Individual differences in most respects are quantitative rather
than qualitative, that is, are due to relative development or non-
development of characters that belong to the race rather than to
actual difference in unit characters.

Some races are so rich in unit characters that not all can
develop in any single individual, as, for example, color in cattle.

I CO DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS

Some of the units are present in a high degree, and these are
strongly developed, giving the visible appearance of the indi-
vidual ; others are present in low degree, remaining undeveloped,
and out of evidence, leaving us to assume their absence.

The proof that every individual really possesses all the normal
characters of the race is the fact that he will transmit them to
his young, and that is why the offspring of two bay horses may
be something else than bay. When such an offspring is, say,
black, we assume that one and possibly both of the parents
possessed unit characters of black as well as bay ; that is to say,
that some of the ancestors were black. Not only that, but if any
of the ancestors were black, we assume that black unit characters
are present, that they will be certainly transmitted, and will one
day crop out.

The sire will transmit milking quality as well as the cow,
though it is a character that develops only in the female. The
truth is that he, as well as the female, possesses the character,
but it is not functional in his case. It loses nothing by this fact,
however, in transmission. People are often puzzled to account
for traits of character that outcrop in children, but were notice-
able in neither parent. The truth is that all ancestry is more
or less mixed, and every parent can be counted upon to trans-
mit many more unit characters than are present in his visible
make-up. This is reversion, the so-called mystery of transmis-
sion or " failure of heredity," as it is often erroneously denomi-
nated. It is no failure at all, for real unit characters are all
transmitted ; whether they ever develop and become evident
depends upon a variety of circumstances, chief of which are
their relative intensity and the conditions of life to which the
individual happens to be subjected during development.

Characters developed and characters latent. As has just been
implied, the visible personality of the individual depends upon
those particular characters that happen to have developed, and
not at all upon that other and extensive possession of unde-
veloped or, as they are called, "latent" characters. The term

UNIT CHARACTEB^ • \ i''^]?f>,' \\i^t:

is not a good one. They are latent only in the sense that they
are not evident except as they outcrop in succeeding generations,
when, with other blood lines, the new combinations become
sufficiently strong or otherwise favorable to bring them out.
They are not latent in the sense that their presence cannot be
suspected. If we examine carefully all the unit characters in
any race, we shall know positively what characters will be pos-
sessed by the descendants, but as to which will develop and give
visible evidence of their presence in any particular individual
we cannot predict. We shall see later, however, that if both
sire and dam are black, knowing nothing about other ancestry,
the offspring will stand even chances of being black also. If all
the grandparents, however, were red, the offspring, even of
black parents, would stand one chance in four of being red ; or,
what is the same thing, one fourth of all such offspring would
be red and one half black, with the other one fourth unknown.

Characters dominant and characters recessive. Some charac-
ters are dominant, that is, strong and easily seen, while others
are difficult of detection or easily covered up and obscured by
stronger ones. Thus, in flowers, pink is easily lost in red ; light
blue, in purple ; or yellow, in green. Small size is obscured by
large size, and, in general, certain characters are much more
readily seen than others. Those that are most evident are called
the dominant, as distinct from the recessive, which are the less
evident. Quite aside from mere visibility, too, certain characters
seem more likely to appear in crossed forms than do their cor-
responding but equally noticeable characters (see the discus-
sion under Mendel's law and the illustrations of guinea pigs
in Chapter XI).

Correlation of characters. ^ The relations between the many
unit characters that make up any race are in many respects
striking. Certain characters move together in the relation of
cause and effect. Such characters are said to be highly corre-
lated. Certain others seem naturally opposed, and here the

1 " Principles of Breeding," chap. xiii.

j^?, aC>MESTTGATHD ANIMALS AND PLANTS

correlation is said to be negative. In general, while characters
are more or less indifferent to each other, there is, for the most
part, a low but real correlation. Methods of calculating this cor-
relation are well known and are extensively used in statistical
studies, but are rather too complicated for introduction here (see
reference to " Principles of Breeding " just given).

Fig. 1 6. Albino deer. Specimen owned by State Museum, Augusta, Maine

Lost characters. In the vicissitudes of time and selection
characters are sometimes lost. Thus the whale, which is a true
mammal, like the cow, and which once lived upon the land, has
lost its hind legs except for a few pelvic bones. Birds have lost
one ovary. The whole snake family has lost one lung, and all
but the python have lost all traces of their legs.

Some colors are the result of pigment formation. This quality
is often lost, resulting sometimes in an albino individual, as in

UNIT CHARACTERS 1 03

Fig. 16,1 or of an entire strain, as in cattle and pigs, and
sometimes in a modified color, due to the absence of the
definite pigment.

New characters. It is much easier to understand the extinc-
tion of characters and species than it is to account for the
appearance of new ones ; indeed, there is some reason to be-
lieve that both the fauna and the flora of the world are getting
simpler, that is, so far as numbers of species are concerned, by
which is meant that, in all likelihood, species are becoming ex-
tinct faster than new ones are appearing.

However, new characters are appearing and, as we shall see
later, new strains and races, equivalent for present purposes to
new species, are constantly developing. These arise sometimes
through the loss of a character, but often by some new combi-
nations of old characters, resulting essentially in new races.
Good examples of this are found in the large number of new
strains of garden flowers, fruits, and vegetables, each with some
distinguishing trait that is especially valuable.

Characters and unit characters. A distinction must be here
observed for the sake of accuracy. The term '' character " is
used in a very general sense to cover any quality or faculty of
animal or plant to which we especially desire to allude.

For example, we speak of the quality of milk production,
which, as a valuable commercial consideration in cattle, may be
roughly spoken of as a character. Upon reflection, however, it
will be seen that it is not a tmit character, for the faculty arises
not from a single physiological function but from several ; that
is to say, there are a variety of facts that would influence milk
production, namely, the size of the udder, the glandular activity
of the organ, the capacity to eat and digest large amounts of
food, and perhaps a number of others unknown to us.

^ Such a deer would of course have little chance of being spared either
by the hunter or by natural enemies ; hence no strain of albino deer can de-
velop. The same is true as to albinism in bears, except in arctic regions where
conditions are reversed.

I04 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS

Now it is evident that we might have cows with good udders
and indifferent digestive powers. In other words, milk produc-
tion is conditioned upon a number of minor factors, each able to
behave somewhat independent of the others physiologically ; that
is, to behave as separate unit characters.

The term "unit character" is therefore used to indicate such
fundamentally physiological elements as tend to behave some-
what independently of each other and to act as units in trans-
mission froni parent to offspring.

How these units are transmitted from parent to offspring, and
how they behave in transmission, is the subject of succeeding
chapters.

Summary. Each " character " has a real physiological basis, and such
an ultimate unit of variability is called a " unit character," In common par-
lance we often use the term "character" for what must be the resultant of a
large number of these units, as when we speak of milk production.

These unit characters are sometimes difficult to differentiate and identify,
but often not ; as, for example, a single color commonly behaves as a unit,
while temperament and the more complex functions are evidendy the re-
sultants of many units.

Exercises. 1. Make a list of the color characters of horses, cattle, sheep,
pigs, and other domestic animals.

2. Make a list of the characters common to the horse and the cow ; the
pig and the sheep ; the hen and the goose ; the hen and the pig.^

3. Make a list of characters possessed by the one but not by the other of
the above couplets.^

1 In this remember that character means any physical part like vertebra or
rib, hoof or horn, color or odor, as well as any mental trait like timidity or
fierceness, docility or nervousness.

2 Thus while the hen and the pig both have round eyes, the hen has feathers
instead of bristles. What is the seeming hair on the hen ?

CHAPTER VIII
VARIABILITY OF A SINGLE CHARACTER i

Critical study of a single character • Types • Plotting the frequency curve •
The mean • The typical individual • Variability or deviation from type •
Average deviation • Standard deviation • Coefficient of variability • Suggestions
as to taking measurements •' Suggestions as to grouping • Suggestions as to
numbers ■ Suggestions as to taking samples • Advantages of statistical studies

Critical study of a single character. We have seen that the
individual and the race are made up of an intimate association
of semi-independent units called characters. Now, owing to the
differences in heredity and to the vicissitudes of development
these characters are themselves, in many cases at least, highly
inconstant, and it remains to study next the variability of a
single unit character considered by itself alone.

Suppose we are to study corn characters one by one, as, for
example, the length of ears. We find at once that different ears
differ greatly in this respect. How, then, shall we describe this
character so long as it is not uniform in different ears ? We can
do it only by first ascertaining the tj/pe, and next learning what
is the variability or deviation from this type with respect to
length, for, of course, variabilities differ in different characters
even in the same species. It is the business of the present
chapter to show how this may be done.

For this purpose take at random, that is, just as they come
from the field, a lot of ears, say, 300 or thereabouts. Next de-
cide upon a scale or " scheme " of measurements for grouping.^

1 For a more extended study see " Principles of Breeding," chap. xii.

2 It needs some practice in order to decide upon the most desirable scheme
for any particular study. It is found that for length half-inch differences give
as good results as do finer measurements, but that differences of one inch
fail to give a smooth distribution. With half-inch differences the distribution
is " smooth," that is, the numbers increase and decrease gradually.

105

Distribution as to
Length

Io6 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS

Then measure each ear and record it opposite the figure in
the scheme that comes nearest to the correct measure of the
ear. When all the ears have been measured and the lengths
recorded, you will have results similar to these of the follow-
ing table, which is an actual case -taken from a field of Reed's
Yellow Dent, crop of 1906.

By this we ^ee that in all 286 ears were
measured ; that our scale was longer
than it needed to be, for no ear was
found as short as 4 inches or as long as
12 inches; that one ear was 5 inches
long, four were ^\ inches long, etc, ; and
that the number gradually rises to 59 and
then as gradually declines, so that ex-
tremes of length are represented by rela-
tively few ears.

Types. We are ready now to arrive at
a rational conception of type. The most
common length of ear is not 5 inches nor
is it 10 inches, but it is 8 1^ inches, because
59 out of 286 ears were nearer that length
than any other. This is therefore the most
usual, or, as we say, the typical length.
This is not saying that it is the most de-
sirable length, but that it is the length
most commonly found.^ Such a value is
called the mode, and we say that 8.5 inches is the mode of
this corn as to length.

Plotting the frequency curve. Such a lot of measurements
is technically called a " frequency distribution" or, more briefly,
a "distribution." It is always indicated by the letter/, as is
the scheme of values by the letter V.

4.0

4-5

5-0

5-5

6.0

6 -

6.5

7.0

7:5

' 3'

8.0

:>!

8.5

9.0

9-5

1 0.0

10.5

II.O

"•5

12.0

286

* That is, a blindfolded man drawing ears at random would draw this length
oftener than any other ; or if one's life depended upon a single draw, he would
stand more chances by drawing this than any other length.

VARIABILITY OF A SINGLE CHARACTER 107

Frequency distributions are always characterized by a gradual
rise to the mode and then by a corresponding fall. This " slope "
of the frequency is best brought out to the eye by the system of
plotting, in which the distribution is put into the form of a
curve, called everywhere the frequency curve (see Fig. 17).

To plot this curve lay off the horizontal line X^X, and erect
(9 Fas a perpendicular. Next lay off distances on A^'A'both ways
from (9, corresponding to the scheme of values, and erect perpen-
diculars from each. Then lay off on (9 Fa distance correspond-
ing to the modal value, — in this case 59, — and on each of the

60 —

•'

50—

^N^

^^N

40 —

,'\

■"~~>~

30 —

--''

20-

10 —

--r-T-]"

1 —

5.0

G.5 7.0 7.5 8.0 O 9.0 9.5 10.0 10.5 11.0 11.5
Fig. 17. The frequency curve

perpendiculars a distance corresponding to the number it repre-
sents. Last of all, connect these points with a curved line, and
this line will be the so-called curve of frequency, which is a true
picture of the variability of the character in question.

A glance at Fig. 17 will show that this distribution is not
quite as smooth as would be desired, — a fault that would be cor-
rected with a larger number of ears, in which case the slopes of
the curve would be more regular and its character more uniform.

The mean. It is clear that two populations ^ might have the
same mode but with very different distributions. There is there-
fore another conception of type quite aside from the highest

1 " Population " is the technical term for the group of individuals studied,
whether corn or cattle or people. In the present instance we are trying to
study the variability as to length of ear in Reed's Yellow Dent, which is the
population, by means of a supposedly random sample of 286 ears — rather too
few for smooth results, but upon the whole fairly satisfactory.

Distribution as to Length

FINDING THE MeAN ^

I08 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS

frequency, and that is the average of all the measurements,
technically called the mean.i The formula for the mean is
2/F-J- n = M? In words, this means to multiply each group of
the frequency distribution (/) by its corresponding value ( F), add

the results, and divide by the total
number, all of which amounts to
the adding together of all the
lengths as originally taken and
dividing by the total number. It
is the usual operation of find-
ing the average, known to every
schoolboy, but it is best done
methodically, and the method is
well illustrated by the case in
point, as shown in the accom-
panying table.

By this we see that the aver-
age ear in this particular case
was 8.514 inches long, differing
somewhat from the mode or most
frequent length . Either the mode
or the mean can be taken as the
type, according to the needs of
the case, but the measure most commonly accepted as best rep-
resenting the type is the mean or average of all.

The typical individuaL Having determined the type as to a
single character, it can be determined in the same way for any

5-0

5-5
6.0

4
6

22.0
36.0

6.5

45-5

7.0

133-0

7-5
8.0

232-5
296.0

8.5
9.0

59
46

501-5
414.0

9-5

370.5

lO.O

230.0

10.5

"5-5

II.O

22.0

"•5

I
2 286

11-5

S 2435.0

2435.0

286 = 8.514

mean

M, the

1 The mean is to be distinguished from the median, which is the middle-
most ; that is to say, if these 286 ears should be spread out in a row, beginning
with the shortest, the median would be the ear at the middle point, with as
many above it as below it in length. As our number is even, there would be
no true median, for the 143d ear would have 142 below it and 143 above it.
If there were one ear less, the median would be the 143d ear, and its length
would be the median length.

^ The Greek 2 (capital sip-fnf^) ic frHA> iicn .1 ,si<;n of addition or summation.

^ Here F means value, as before,/ means lucnuiu y, and //'means/ x F,
or the values multiplied by their respective frequencies.

^^>

VARIABILITY OF A SINGLE CHARACTER

109

Distribution as to

Weight of Ears

IN Ounces

number of other characters that can be measured, weighed,
counted, or in any other way accurately determined. Thus the
following is an actual distribution as to weight of ears, in which
the character is measured in terms of ounces instead of inches.
Here the problem deals with a different unit of value, so that
V now stands for ounces, while / stands for frequency, as be-
fore. The mode in this distribution is 9
ounces and the mean 8.807 ounces, the
derivation of which is left for the student
or reader by the methods already outlined.

If now we should pick an ear that is
8.514 inches long and that weighs 8.807
ounces, it would be typical both as to
leitgth and weight. So in the same way
other characters could be determined,
such as circumference, number of rows,
and in some cases even color, and any ear
that was ''on the type " as to each char-
acter could be fairly called a typical ear.

A typical individual is, therefore, one
that is typical, or average, as to all the
characters that are considered important.
Practical experience will show that there
are very few typical individuals in any
species, provided very many characters
are considered.

Variability or deviation from type. But the average gives us
only partial information concerning the character we are studying.
It gives us no indication of the spread or range of the distribution,
as to how many of the population have deviated from the type, or
how extensive was the deviation ; that is, the average gives us no
measure of variability, and it is such a measure that we now seek.

Average deviation. Referring to the original distribution of
length of ears, let us consider how much each group of ears
deviates from the mean or average length, which is 8.514—.

S280

Mean = 8.807 ounces.

no DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS

Variability as to Length of
Ear — Average Deviation

To avoid large decimals we discard the last figure and take the
mean at 8.51. From this mean the shortest ear, which was 5
inches long, deviated 3.51 inches, the next group of four each

deviated 3.01 inches, or a
total deviation of 4 x 3.01 =
12.04. Each of the next
group of six deviated 2.51,
equaling 15.06 in all, and so
on for all the groups. It is
manifest that if we continue
down the distribution in this
way, calculating the deviation
for each group, and then add
all together, we shall have the
total amount by which all the
ears deviated from the length
of their average, ^nd it is
equally evident that if this
total be divided by the num-
ber of ears, we shall have the
avci-agc deviation of these
ears. Such an average is a
fair measure of variability with
respect to the character length in this particular variety. The

V-M^

f{V-M)

5-0

-3-51

3-51

5-5

-3.01

12.04

6.0

- 2.51

15.06

6.5

— 2.01

14.07

7.0

- I-5I

28.69

7-5

— 1. 01

31-31

8.0

-0.51

18.87

8.5

— O.OI

00.59

9.0

0.49

22.54

9-5

0.99

38.61

1 0.0

1.49

34-27

10.5

1.99

21.89

I I.O

2.49

4.98

II-5

I
S286

2.99

2.99
2 249.42

549.4:

Mean = 8.514
286 = 0.872 +, average
deviation

formula would read as follows :

^f{y-M)

average deviation .^

The process is carried out systematically^ in the table above.

1 All deviations below the mean are denoted by the minus sign. In calculat-
ing deviation by this method these signs are disregarded. In the method to be
next described these deviations are squared so that the minus signs disappear
naturally.

2 In words this formula means : subtract the mean from each of the values
involved, multiply these differences by their respective frequencies (disre-
garding the minus signs), add these products, and divide by the total number
in the frequency distribution.

' In all work of this kind systematic arrangement is desirable, not only on
the score of neatness but of accuracy as well.

VARIABILITY OF A SINGLE CHARACTER 1 1 1

Thisjgives o.8.^^-.:4^asJLke.ay£ra2:e-amflunt.hv which. .ear&»fiL
this_kind of corn-deviate -from their own average length. It is,
therefore, a good measure of variabiHty, and, taken together
with the average, it gives us a good measure of this particular
character, because it tells us not only what is the average length,
but also what is the general or average tendency to deviate or
depart from that length. In other words, we now have a good
measure both of type and variability for this single character
and for this particular population.

Standard deviation. The method of calculating variability
just described has the merit of brevity and simplicity, but it so
happens that mathematicians prefer a slightly different method.
This difference consists only in squaring the several deviations
before multiplying by their respective values, thus necessitating
the extraction of the square root after division by the total

number ; thus a = a^-^^^-^^ • This gives a slightly dif-
ferent value for variability, which, when derived by this method,
is called " standard deviation " and is denoted by the small
Greek letter a (sigma). The method of systematically calcu-
lating standard deviation is shown in the table on page 112.
The disadvantage of standard deviation as compared with aver-
age deviation is in the additional labor involved in its calculation,
but it possesses many mathematical advantages in the solution
of complicated problems. It is, therefore, thf> <"^pr^fiSion n^ii-
versally preferred by mathematicians. As the two results differ,
the student must choose between them. The average devia-
tion is so seldom used that it is given only as a means of ex-
plaining standard deviation on the common-sense ^ basis, and not
because it will be used by the student. It is better in every way
to follow custom in this matter and use the standard deviation.

1 Mathematicians have a habit of appealing wherever possible to the in-
stincts of " common sense " to evidence the reason for many things which, if
absolutely demonstrated, would often require complicated formulae and much
abstract reasoning.

112 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS

Variability as to Length of Ear — Standard Deviation

V-M

{V-MY

nv-M)^

-3-51

12.31 + 1

12.31

5-5

-3.01

9.06 +

36.24

6.0

- 2.51

6.30 +

37.80

6.5

— 2.01

4-04 +

28.28*

7.0

- I-5I

2.28 +

43-32

7.5

— I.OI

1.02 +

31-62

8.0

-0.51

0.26 +

9.62

8.5

— O.OI

0.00

9.0

0.49

0.24 +

11.04

9-5

0.99

0.98 +

38.22

1 0.0

1.49

2.22 +

51.06

10.5

1.99

3-96 +

43-56

II.O

2.49

6.20

12.40

"•5

I
286

2.99

8.94

8.94
364.41

Mean = 8.514.
Vi-2742 = 1. 13

364.41 -- 286= 1.2742.
standard deviation (<r).

This standard deviation is considered, therefore, as the uni-
versal measure of variabiHty, and the student will do well to
work these values with original measurements until they come
to have a real meaning. After this has been done for a time
_staiidard[ deviation will express as much about variability as does
the radius about a circle.

Coefficient of variability. But one further step is necessary
in. the mathematical study of variability. The mean length of
ear in this case was 8.514 inches, and its variability, that is, its
standard deviation, was i . 1 3 inches ; the mean weight of ear
was 8.807 ounces, and the standard deviation was 2.854 ounces.

How now can we compare variability in inches with varia-
bility in ounces t In other words, how can we tell whether
this corn is more variable with respect to length than it is with
respect to weight, or vice versa } We cannot tell by direct

1 The plus sign denotes that decimals are dropped.

VARIABILITY OF A SINGLE CHARACTER

comparison of the two standard deviations, because variability
in one case is expressed in terms of inches and in the other in
terms of ounces.

If, however, each of the standard deviations be divided by its
mean as a base, then the quotients can be directly compared.
Thus 1 . 1 3 -^ 8.5 14 = 0.1 327, or, as it is more commonly written,
13.27, meaning thereby 13.27 per cent ; and 2.854 h- 8.807 =^
32.41, showing that the corn is much more variable with respect
to weight than it is with respect to length. Such a quotient —
standard deviation divided by its mean — is known as the coeffi-
cient of variability, and, being entirely an abstract number, it
serves as a basis on which the variabilities of any two distribu-
tions may be directly compared, whether dealing in terms of
inches or ounces, feet or pounds or numbers, and whether the
individuals involved are ears of corn, pounds of milk, bushels of
grain, or any other races or characters where differences can be
weighed, counted, or otherwise measured. The footnote^ gives
a few coefficients of variability for human measurements.

By the methods here outlined, any character or characters
may be accurately studied as to both type and variability, pro-
vided the character can be accurately measured in some way, and
provided also that sufficient numbers can be found to make the
distribution fairly smooth.

It remains to offer suggestions as to certain details that are
encountered in studies of this sort, and on which the student
needs further information.

Suggestions as to taking measurements. In the scale just
used, the measurements of corn were taken one half inch apart
and the weights in ounces. Why ? Why were not the lengths

Nose length . . ,

. 9.49

Head breadth ....

. . 2.78

Nose breadth . . ,

• 7-57

Upper-arm length . .

. . 6.50

Nose height . . .

. 15.20

Forearm length . . .

■ • 3-85

Forehead height . .

. 10.40

Upper-leg length . . .

. . 5.00

Under-jaw length

. 4.81

Lower-leg length . . .

. . 5.04

Mouth breadth . .

. 5-i8

Foot length

. . 5.92

Head length ...

. 2.44

114 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS

taken to, say, one quarter inch and the weights more accurately ?
The answer is that experience has shown that these are suffi-
ciently accurate, and if the measurements had been taken finer,
say to the quarter inch, the labor of calculating would have been
doubled, and all without altering or improving results in any
substantial way. What, now, is to decide the question as to
accuracy of measurements ?

Speaking generally, the object is not so much to get accurate
measurements of all the individuals as such, as it is to make
them comparable one with others ; and it will be found by trial
that measurements taken to the half inch in length of ears of
corn, for example, will give practically the same results as those
taken at a closer measure, as one fourth or one eighth of an
inch. Not only is this true, but it is practically impossible to get
the length of an ear of corn correctly within an eighth of an
inch, as will be found by trial.

On the other hand, if we should take the measurements only
to one inch, they would be too far apart for smooth distributions.
The best easy test of the measurement to be chosen for "class"
grouping, as it is called, is whether it gives a fairly '' smooth "
distribution. A glance at the distribution of length or of weight
of ears will show that the figures slope off each way from the
middle at a fairly uniform rate without any sudden break and
without any number being greater than its neighbor nearer the
middle. This is the best test of sufficient accuracy. In order to
save labor the measurement will be taken as " coarse " as
possible, but not so coarse as to break up the smoothness of the
distribution or to make the groups too few. A little experience
soon develops a judgment at this point which is better than
anything that can be learned by instruction ; but with all the ex-
perience of experts some trials have to be made whenever a
new problem is taken, in order to determine the most desirable
" scheme of measurements."

Suggestions as to grouping. After the scheme of measure-
ment has been decided — as inches, half inches, ounces, pounds,

VARIABILITY OF A SINGLE CHARACTER 115

feet, or what not — and the ''class marks''^ fixed, then the
student is ready for measurements. The next question is where
to record the various individuals measured. For example, sup-
pose in measuring corn we have adopted the scheme, 4.0, 4.5,
5.0, 5.5, 6.0, 6.5, 7.0, 7.5, etc. We will rarely find an ear that
measures exactly on the even inch or half inch. Most of them
will fall somewhere between these various marks and will need
to be assigned to one group or another somewhat arbitrarily.
Now the rule is to assign to the nearest group. Thus suppose
an ear measures 7| inches; it would be put into the 7.0-inch
class because it is nearer 7 inches than it is to any other measure-
ment of our scheme. Should it measure 6| inches, it would
also go into the 7.0-inch class, and in doing so it would correct
the slight error made in putting the other ear into a class too
short for it. On the principle that as many will be too long as
will be too short, we depend upon the law of chance ^ to keep
our errors even.

On the same principle, if the ear should read 7|, it would go
into the 7. 5 -inch class; but if it should be 7|, it would stand
exactly halfway between the two classes, and here a careful de-
cision must be made as to where it should be put. As it stands
midway between 7 and 7.5 there are no more reasons for its
going one way than the other, and in choosing a scheme of
measurements it is well to avoid a scale that is likely to make
too many fall upon this middle point.

There are but two things to be done with these midclass
measures. They can all be put into the class above them, on
the principle of the business man that calls half a cent a whole
cent and then discards all smaller fractions ; or, what is more
accurate, every alternate measurement of this kind may be put
once above and next below; that is, the first time a 7.25
measurement occurs it may be called 7.5, and then, to offset the

1 The class marks are the various measurements, as 4 inches, 4.5 inches,
5 inches, etc., that make up the scheme of measurements.

2 " Principles of Breeding," p. 365.

Il6 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS

error, it may be called an even 7 the next time it occurs. The
only trouble with this plan is the difficulty of keeping account
of the many assignments. It is much easier to always put them
in the class above (or below, if the worker prefers), but a slight
error is introduced, affecting, of course, the mean, to raise or to
lower it, though ever so slightly. In all but the best work it is
better to admit this error than to keep an accurate account of
the alternate assignment of the midclass measurements.

One more caution must be mentioned in connection with
grouping measurements. Suppose we have a series running, we
will say, as follows : 10, 1 1, 1 2, 1 3, etc., up to 50. If now we take
them as they are, there will be some forty-one different groups,
involving immense and unnecessary labor. The thing to do is to
combine them into fewer groups, but in doing so it is important
to observe great care in choosing the scheme for grouping.

For example, suppose we attempt to group them as follows :
10, 14, 18, 22, etc., reducing them to one fourth of the original
number. What, now, will be the result ? Consider the numbers,
for instance, between 14 and 18. What is to be done with them.?
That is, how are the numbers represented by 15, 16, and 17 to
be recognized in our new scheme ? It will be noticed at once
that we have chosen a scheme with t/iree values between. Of
these three values, 1 5 will of course go down with its new class
mark, 14 ; and 17 will go up to 18. But what is to become of
16 ? Whichever way we put it the result will be to distort the
distribution and prevent its being smooth ; that is, it will put
sudden humps and high spots into it, like saw teeth, that arise
not from the variability in the true measurements but in the
error introduced in the manner of grouping them.

The better way would be to choose a new scheme with an
even number between the new values. For example, suppose
we choose the following: 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, etc. Now there
are four values between 20 and 25, namely, 21, 22, 23, 24, of
which two can go up to 25 and two go down to 20, thus keep-
ing true relative values and insuring a smooth distribution.

VARIABILITY OF A SINGLE CHARACTER 117

All this means that in choosing schemes of measurements
and assigning values to class groups care must always be taken
that the assignments are fair as between groups, in which case
the distribution will be smooth and fairly representative of the
population, all of which is far more important than is extreme
accuracy in individual measurements.

Suggestions as to numbers. The number of cases needed is
a rather difficult matter without getting involved in the question
of probable error, ^ which is too complicated for consideration
here. In general, large numbers are necessary. For work in
corn 200 to 300 give good results, and in most ordinary prob-
lems this number answers very well. For extreme accuracy and
for certain classes of problems much larger numbers are needed,
but problems of that character involve considerations that are
outside of our present purpose, which is to acquaint the student
with the ordinary operations of statistical work.

Suggestions as to taking samples. When a comparatively
small number of individuals (200 to 500) is to be taken as rep-
resentative of the entire race to which they belong, it is neces-
sary that the sample be carefully chosen. It should be what is
called a '' random sample." That does not mean a careless
sample taken without regard to obvious differences, but it means
a fair and representative sample. If the corn, for example, is
husked and in a pile, there would be no better way than to
shovel up the sample, taking whatever the scoop might deliver.
But if the corn is in the stalk, the matter is different. If the
ears are to be picked off, they must all be taken for a given
area, for no man can be trusted to sort fairly, and areas enough
must be taken to fairly represent the field.

Again, suppose one portion of the field is good, but that the
corn in the low ground is partially drowned out, and the ears, of
course, are small. In this case the proper proportion of the poor
corn must be included or the result can be considered as repre-
sentative only of the good portion of the field.

1 " Principles of Breeding," pp. 437-440.

Il8 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS

Advantages of statistical studies. From the standpoint of
improvement, however, these methods give the breeder an
opportunity to study characters carefully, to know their average
value and the extent of their variability. Not only that, but
records kept from year to year will show the breeder what
progress, if any, he is making, and to what extent, if at all, the
animal or plant is responding to his selection. ^

Exercises. The student may well have much practice in solving distribu-
tions for mean, standard deviation, and coefficient of variability. Eight
actual distributions are appended, five in length and three in ounces, but
the student should have practice in taking his own measurements and in
making his own scheme and grouping. These different distributions arise
from different varieties or from different conditions of growth.

Length of ear

Weight of ear

V ! /

/ ! /

in.

oz.

2.5

3-0

3-5

4.0

8 i 9

4.0

4-5

16 1 II

4-5

5-0

5-5

6.0

6.5

7.0

7-5

7.5

8.0

8.5

9.0

9-5

1 0.0

10.0

lo.s

10.5

II. 0

"•5
12.0

397

327

258

362

368

a64

271

280

M= 8.015 M= 7. 141
o-= 1.348 <r= 1.267
C= 16.82 C= 17.74

M= 8.322 M= 7.965 M= 7.063
<r= 1.217 <'■= 1.018 <r= 1.070
0=14.62 0=12.78 0=15.15

M= 7.901 M= 7.860 M= 8.807
tT= 2.657 «'■= 2-593 »■= a-854
0=33.63 0=3a.98 C= 32.41

1 " Principles of Breeding," pp. 434, 435.

VARIABILITY OF A SINGLE CHARACTER

119

Circumference of ear

Number of

rows on cob

4-5

4.8

5-1

•9

103

115

6.0

6.3

6.6

6.9

7.2

7-5

7.8

8.1

310

344

367

313

335

283

M =: 17.91 1 M = 18.107 M = 16.869
(r= 2.501 0-= 2.417 cr= 2.377
C = 13.96 C =: 13.35 C = 14.09

M = 6.121 M = 6.304 M = 6.505
(J- = 0.530 <j = 0.579 cr = 0.499
C = 8.66 C = 9.i8 C = 6.9o

Original problems. Besides the solving of distributions given
in the text, the student should have practice in devising and
solving problems of his own. I know of no better method of
teaching variability, and at the same time insuring rational
conceptions of heredity, than by this methodical and accurate
study of characters taken singly.

For this purpose the student may use not only dimensions
like length and circumference, but he may use weights and num-
bers. He may take the heights of pupils in the school, the
grades they make in classes, or he may take the yield of milk
of many cows, or the weights of milk at the creamery. Anything

1 Experience shows that it is better to take values by 0.25 instead of 0.30;
thus, 4.50, 4.75, 5.00, 5.25, etc. These distributions were made smooth only
by careful assignment of alternate measurements. This scheme of grouping
has been discarded for this reason.

2 Below each/ column will be found the corresponding values. Thus of the
first frequency, footing 310, the M = 6.121, the <t = 0.530, and the C = 8.66.
In this way the answers can be identified for each problem contained in these
tables.

I20 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS

that is variable, and where variabiUty can be accurately meas-
ured, will afford a problem in statistical determination.

Milk and Fat from 1200 Cows in
Illinois Dairies ^

Milk

1,500

2,500
3'5oo
4,500

178
256

75
125

175

22
297

5.500
6,500

253
209

225
275

349
224

7,500
8,500
9,500

131
63

325
375
425

72
39
17

10,500

475

11,500

525

12,500

I
1200

1200

M=55i5

M = 218.25

a— 1770.1

<r= 71.794

C= 32.11

C= 32.90

The solution of the problem on milk and fat tells us that
cows vary among themselves 1770 pounds of milk and over 71
pounds of fat per year, but that the real variability of the two
characters is practically identical — 32.11 and 32.90.

References. 1. " Principles of Breeding " (chap. xii). Davenport.
2. " Statistical Methods." C. B. Davenport.

1 From the records of the dairy department of the University of IlHnois ;
data collected by Professor Fraser.

CHAPTER IX

HOW CHARACTERS ARE TRANSMITTED

Every species of its own kind • The machinery of transmission • Fertiliza-
tion • Fertilization in general • The material transmitted • Chromosomes •
Development, or growth and differentiation • Termination to growth

The facts brought out in the last chapter show that many of
the differences between individuals arise from variability in the
degree of development of a single character, and that much
opportunity for improvement lies in this field of selection.

There is, however, another and a greater cause of individual
differences, and that is in the particular unit characters present.
For example, everybody would recognize that there is more dif-
ference between a small draft horse and a racer than between
the small drafter and a larger one of the same type.

This brings us to a study of the transmission of unit char-
acters with a view to their control between parent and offspring
for the purposes of improvement. The manner of this trans-
mission, it will be seen, is the controlling factor in heredity and
affords the principal basis for improvement.

Every species of its own kind. In a later chapter heredity
and environment will be discussed, but here it is sufficient to
call attention to the very large and obvious fact that whatever
the influence of environment, the differences between individ-
uals are not only great but inherent.

A kernel of corn and a kernel of wheat may be planted side
by side in the same soil. If the soil be fertile and the season
favorable, the crop will be good. If, on the other hand, the soil
be poor or the season bad, then the crop will be small, but the
one will be com and the other tvheat in either case ; all of which
is but another way of saying that the real nature of the plant or

122 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS

the animal is not in the environment, but is inherent in the
organism, the development being influenced but not determined
by the conditions of life.

This particular nature which makes corn to be corn and not
wheat, and wheat to be wheat and not barley, — this particular
nature was implanted by the ancestry and will be transmitted to
the descendants, in varying degrees perhaps, but yet true to
nature if not absolutely true to type ; that is to say, the descend-
ants of corn will be corn and not wheat, for, as we have already
noted, every individual will transmit all the characters of his
race atid no others.

The machinery of transmission. How, now, is this effected ?
How can the particular traits or unit characters that distinguish
corn from wheat, or perhaps one kind of corn from another, — how
can these specific differences, sometimes slight, be carried over
and appear again with more or less exactness in the offspring ?

To one accustomed to seeing everything producing after its
kind, it all seems very natural, not to say inevitable, that this
should be so ; but the more the matter is studied the more
difficult it becomes, and no subject in the realm of living
matter is to-day giving scientists more trouble than this very
one of transmission.

Whoever will take the trouble to visit a cornfield just after
it is coming into tassel will have the opportunity of observing
nature at work about some of its most important business.

First of all, he will see the embryo ear about halfway up the
stalk, with a long fringe of tender " silk " pushing out from the
end and after a time growing longer and dangling in the wind.
If now the husks be carefully stripped down, the embryo cob
will be discovered, and it will be found that each particular silk
runs down and is attached separately and independently to a
definite spot, which will one day, if all goes well, become a new
kernel of corn.

Now, if all does go well, the silk will, after a few days, wither
away, the spot on the cob at its base will begin to grow, and will

HOW CHARACTERS ARE TRANSMITTED

123

in good time develop into a single kernel of corn ; but if all
does not go well, the silk will grow longer for a time, and finally
wither away, but the kernel will not develop, and nothing but a
bare cob will be found at husking time. What is it that decides
whether there is to be or is not to be a kernel ? The answer
to that question involves the whole machinery of transmission.

Every farmer boy knows
that at the top of the stalk
is the tassel, and that this
tassel has the habit at times
of shedding large amounts
of yellow powder, particu-
larly after a rain or in the
still hours of the early morn-
ing after a warm but quiet
night. Most farmer boys
know that in some way this
golden-yellow dust, or "pol-
len," is connected with the
crop, but few of them know
in just what way.

Fig. 18. Ear covered for ten days with a
paper sack preventing fertilization. The
silk remained fresh and continued to grow.
It has been known to reach a length of
two feet while awaiting the pollen

If we use a microscope to magnify size, and see exactly what
is involved and what is going on, it would be somewhat as
follows :

First of all, the silk would be found to be soft and pulpy
throughout its entire length, somewhat " sticky " and branched
at the top or outer end, and connected at the base with a single
cell, called an ovule. ^ Now this ovule is the important part, for
it is what develops into the kernel of corn if all goes well.

1 A " cell " is the structural unit of the plant or animal. As a building is
made of bricks, so the plant or animal body is made up of cells or sacks filled
with a semifluid matter known as protoplasm, which is a kind of general name
for the material of different parts of the body ; that is to say, the protoplasm
of muscle, whose business it is to contract, is quite different from the proto-
plasm of- liver, whose business it is to manufacture a definite secretion. The
cells of different parts of the body structure contain, therefore, very different

124 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS

It will be found that the characteristic thing which normally
happens is this : one of the little particles of yellow dust drops
upon the sticky tip of the silk, adheres, and begins at once to
grow, not upward like a seed, but dow7i the silk throughout its
entire length to the ovule at its base.

Now the pollen grain is itself, like the ovule, a sex cell, though
a very small one, with its nucleus and its surrounding protoplasm.
The latter is consumed during the progress down the silk, but
the nucleus descends until it reaches and unites with the nucleus
of the ovule.

Fertilization. This is fertilization, after which the ovule,
which would otherwise wither away, is capable of developing
into a kernel of corn, which will be pure or mixed as to its unit
characters according as the two nuclei that blended for its
development were of the same or of different parentage.

The unit characters of the parents are undoubtedly contained
in the two nuclei, and these are what decide the character of the
offspring. It seems inconceivable that so small a bit of matter
as a pollen grain or the nucleus of the ovule, each far smaller
than the head of a pin, can carry so many and such profound
potentialities ; but the character of these two nuclei alone deter-
mine whether the kernel shall be white, yellow, or mixed, sweet,
field, or pop corn. If both are from white parents, then the ker-
nel will be white and will transmit white characters only ; but if
one be from a white parent and the other from a yellow, then
the kernel will be mixed and will in its turn transmit both white
and yellow characters. Corresponding results will follow if one
should be field or pop corn and the other should be sweet corn.

Moreover, this kernel, whatever its parentage, may afterward
*' grow " and in its turn give rise to an entire new corn plant,

kinds of protoplasm, each with its own particular function to discharge. These
cells lie closely packed together, like rubber bags filled with thickened water,
and near the center of each is its " nucleus," which is its densest portion and
the part which takes the initiative in cell division and growth. If it happens
to be a sex cell, the nucleus is the repository of the hereditary matter and the
seat of transmission.

HOW CHARACTERS ARE TRANSMITTED 125

bearing both silk and tassel and producing both ovules and pol-
len grains, each new kernel being independent of its neighbors.

Fertilization in general.
This, roughly speaking, is
characteristic of fertilization
in general, whether plant or
animal. A small male cell
(the pollen grain in plants or
the spermatozoon in animals)
meets and fuses with the
larger 1 female cell (ovule in
plants or ovum in animals),
which is thereafter capable
of developing into a new in-
dividual possessed of all the
characters of both parents.

The method of effecting
this union of the nuclei in
fertilization and the time at
which it takes place vary
greatly in different species.
In many plants both sex cells
are borne by the same indi-
vidual, either in one flower,
as in the apple and the elm,

or in separate flowers, as in corn.^ In others, as the chestnut and
the box elder, the male flowers are borne on one plant and the

1 Though the female cell is always larger than the male, the nucleus, which
seems to be the essential part, has the same number of chromosomes (see
chromosomes), so that the male and the female parents have identical powers
in transmission. The differences in size are apparently due to the amount of
protoplasm surrounding the nucleus, probably as food material for the develop-
ing young and in no way connected with heredity. This difference is some-
times great, as in the egg of the hen, most of which is food material for the
developing chick, while the male cell is microscopic.

2 This bisexuality, or hermaphroditism, is also found in certain lower animals,
as the earthworm.

Fig. 19. Kernels of corn growing on

the tip of the tassel ; occasional but

not common

126 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS

female on another, following the plan of the higher animals,
in which the two sexes are always identified with separate
individuals. See also Fig. 19, which shows that the tassel is a
modified ear with the female flowers normally undeveloped.

In the higher animals the ova are produced periodically and
fertilization is variously effected. In fishes, for example, the
eggs are fertilized by the male after having been deposited by the
female. In frogs the eggs are fertilized during their deposition.
In birds the eggs are '' laid " as fast as they mature, but unless
they have been fertilized by the spermatozoa of the male previous
to being laid, they will not " hatch," just as the unfertilized ovules
of the corn fail to develop, leaving the cob bare of kernels.

In mammals the ova ripen periodically like the eggs of the
bird, with this difference, that if fertilized before escaping from
the body, they are not discharged at all, but are retained in the
uterus of the mother during embryonic development and are
carried there until birth. The ova of mammals, unlike those
of birds, are not supplied with sufficient nutriment to last
through their comparatively long period of development, and
this prenatal food is supplied directly through the blood of
the mother.

The student hardly needs to be reminded that this blending
of nuclei takes place and development follows only when the
nuclei are not too dissimilar. For example, wheat would not be
fertilized by pollen of corn, but it has been fertilized by that
of rye. This mixing of very different races is known as hybridi-
zation. The most frequent case of hybrids among animals is
the common mule, but a hybrid has been made between the
lion and the' tiger and very frequently among plants, as between
the raspberry and the blackberry. We pass now to a more care-
ful consideration of what is involved in transmission.

The material transmitted. All that is " handed down" from
parent to offspring is, therefore, the minute bit of matter con-
tained in the two nuclei and the small amount of surrounding
protoplasm, — microscopic in almost all cases. Of course a single

HOW CHARACTERS ARE TRANSMITTED 127

ovule with its pollen nucleus would develop but a single kernel,
and the operation described must be repeated for every one of
the thousand or more kernels of the ear, each of which for
present purposes is a distinct individual.

The same is true for each grain of wheat, though in this case
the ovule and the pollen are produced in the same flower and
close together under the scale or chaff. So the process could
be traced for every seed of all species, for each is a new indi-
vidual. Among animals, also, but two nuclei are involved for
each new individual whether as small as the cricket or as large
as the elephant.

Little enough is known of the essential constitution of these
remarkable bits of living matter called nuclei, but that little is
too much to discuss exhaustively here.^ It is enough for present
purposes to call attention to the wonderful fact that these two
bits of matter, too small to be seen and studied with the naked
eye, carry with them all the characters of the race ; moreover,
as they constitute the only material transmitted from parent to
offspring, they are the only vehicles of transmission. Other
nuclei from other parts of the body can repeatedly divide, absorb-
ing food as they do so, constituting growth, but these nuclei
from the reproductive cells, excepting in certain lower species,
do not grow till after union with others from the opposite sex.

Chromosomes. The nucleus of the animal or plant cell is
something more than a formless bit of matter endowed with
life. If the nuclei of several species be stained and examined
under a high-pow^r microscope, each will be found to contain
a definite number of rods, rings, or other bodies, always the
same in all the cells of all the individuals of the same species,
but differing in different species. These are called chromosomes.

Another peculiarity about the chromosomes is that for all
species that propagate bisexually the number is even ; thus in
mouse, trout, and lily it is 24 ; in ox, guinea pig, onion, and

1 It may be conveniently pursued further in '' Principles of Breeding," chaps,
vii and viii.

128 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS

probably man it is i6 ; in ascaris, 4 or possibly 2 ; while in
artemia it is 168.

There is still another peculiarity about the chromosomes,
namely, that the nuclei from the sex cells have but half the
usual 7iumber; but after union of the two nuclei from the sepa-
rate parents, the full number is restored, and from then on cell
division and growth begin and proceed in the usual way, barring
accident, till full maturity is attained.

These chromosomes, therefore, appear of importance, not
only in growth (for the operation of cell division seems to be
preceded if not characterized by the division of the chromo-
somes), but they appear to be par excellence the hereditary sub-
stance, that is, the bearers of heredity ; all of which encourages
the belief that most characters are in some way identified with
definite portions of the hereditary matter of the nucleus, that is,
with its chromosomes.

Development, or growth and differentiation. The process by
which these two nuclei after fusion succeed in producing a
new individual combines two phenomena, namely, growth and
differentiation.

The process of growth means that this new cell, which is
made up of two others, is able now to absorb food materials and
to first increase in size, then to multiply in numbers by the
process of repeated and indefinite division, until what was once
a single cell comes to be a new individual with thousands of cells.

This is growth and it is astonishing enough, but the chief
marvel is the differentiation that attends it. When these thousands
of cells have developed from the one original, it will be found
that they are not all alike ; some are stem, others root, still others
leaf, flower, or fruit. In the case of animals some are muscle
cells, others constitute liver, brain and nerve, arm, leg, or eye.

In other words, growth has been attended by differentiation,
so that the single minute mother cell has been able to give rise
to many cells of many kinds, only a few of which are able to
repeat the process of reproduction. Not only has differentiation

HOW CHARACTERS ARE TRANSMITTED 129

taken place, producing different parts of many kinds, but they
are of the same kind and in the same position as in the parents.

In a few cases accidents happen and development does not
proceed in the orderly manner that commonly characterizes
reproduction. These cases are extremely rare, but of sufficient
interest to constitute the material of a separate chapter, dealing
with what happens when development goes wrong.

Termination to growth. Still another marvel attends upon
growth and differentiation, and that is, that it should all stop at
the right point. It is difficult to comprehend that a man's arm
should grow at all so as to be an arm and not a leg, but once
started it is still more difficult to understand what should stop
the growth at exactly or approximately the right time, and not
allow it to proceed indefinitely, as it does in the nails, claws^
and, to some extent, in the teeth of animals.

In general, plants have no ''typical termination" to their
growth, but increase in size as long as life lasts ; that is, they
seem unable to discharge their function except in connection
with new growth and by means of recently formed tissues, while
animals " get their growth," that is, function independently of
new growth.

Summary. The only possibility of transmission of the unit characters of
the parents to the offspring is by means of the minute bits of matter con-
tained in the single sex cell from each parent, because it is the only material
handed down to the new individual.

How this microscopic bit of matter can contain all the potentialities of
the race and be able not only to grow and to differentiate with growth, but
to stop at the right point, — how it can do all this is a mystery, but the fact
is doubtless connected with the definite " architecture " or structure of the
germ plasm which contains always a definite number of chromosomes.

Exercises. 1. Study the formation of pollen and the location of the pistil
together with the method of getting the pollen upon the stigma in a variety
of plants. Oats, wheat, beans, sweet peas, and hollyhocks are especially
recommended.

2. Examine frog spawn, if any is available, and, if possible, obtain
mounted slides showing the early stages of embryological development.

3. Set a nest of eggs under a hen and break one every other day after
the first week.

CHAPTER X

WHEN DEVELOPMENT GOES WRONG

Differentiation with development • Underdevelopment, or dwarfing • Over-
development, or giants • Arrested development of a single character or
part • Overdevelopment of a single part • Doubling of parts • Fusing of
parts • When unit characters get misplaced • Abnormal growths

Differentiation with development. The greatest marvel of
development is differentiation. That two nuclei not only from
different cells but from different individuals should fuse, absorb
food, and divide and subdivide into not hundreds but thousands
of others, - — all this is wonderful enough, particularly when we
remember that without this union neither would be capable of
dividing at all.^

After all, however, the marvel is that with development comes
differentiation ; that is, that the result of growth is not a lump
of formless matter. On the contrary, here a leg, there an arm
" buds " out; here an ear and there an eye or a tooth appears ;
here a lung forms to take in air and there a heart develops to
pump over the body the stream of digested food that we call the
blood, — and so on, bit by bit, the whole complicated structure
of the body arises, each part in its proper place ; and not only
that, but in general an exceedingly striking resemblance to the
particular parentage results, so that the being which develops
from a fertilized ovum of the horse, for example, is not only
another horse, instead of a cow or a pig, but it is a particular
kind of horse, depending upon the special individuals from
which he was born.

1 There are a few exceptions to this statement, but they are concerned with
parthenogenesis, which is not involved in the subject matter here under
discussion.

130

WHEN DEVELOPMENT GOES WRONG 131

It must not be assumed, however, that development always
proceeds in this regular manner nor that the results are all
perfect. A great variety of departures from the usual plan may
occur, each with its attendant consequences, some of which are
worth mentioning here, not so much for their own sake as to
make the student intelligent upon the really complicated proc-
esses involved in development, and with which we must reckon
in all attempts at improvement.

Underdevelopment, or dwarfing. In order to produce a per-
fect individual, differentiation must not only occur in proper
form, but each of the various parts must grow to the normal
size. If growth stops short of this point, it is a case of dwarf-
ing. The dwarf is like the normal individual except as to size.^
The separate cells of the body of the dwarf are of the usual
magnitude, but the number is fewer ; that is, cell division ^ has
not continued the normal length of time.

Nearly all animals are subject to dwarfing, though it is ap-
proximately rare, if not unknown, in some. It is common with
human beings as well as with horses, dogs, and chickens, in
which dwarf species have developed.

The dwarf is very rare, if not unknown, among cattle and
sheep, though, as in all species, a good many individuals are
"undersized." The "titman," or "runt," in. the litter of pigs
is really a dwarf, the dwarfing process often being due to
insufficient food at the start.

Dwarfing due to this cause will sometimes disappear with
improvement in the conditions of life, though, in general, size
and development lost in early life are seldom fully restored.
Cell division and growth are more rapid at birth than ever after-
wards, a steady decline setting in that does not permit full repa-
ration for early checks to normal development, — a fact which

1 So-called dwarfs are often misshapen things, but in these instances other
accidents than dwarfing have occurred, as will be shown later.

2 For a description of cell division in connection with growth, see" Principles
of Breeding," pp. 145-152.

132 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS

shows the importance of early food and care for the young of
our domesticated species.

Plants are easily dwarfed, either by scarcity of food or by
repeated planting of immature seed. Many species have their
dwarf varieties, though others are artificially produced by graft-
ing on other and smaller species, as, for example, the pear,
which is dwarfed by grafting upon stock of the quince.

Overdevelopment, or giants. In normal development and
differentiation, growth should not only proceed to the proper
point, but it is fully as important that it stop at that point. If it
does not, then overgrowth takes place and a giant is produced.

As the dwarf is the result of too little cell division and too
few cells, so the giant is the product of too much cell division
and too many cells ; that is to say, of growth that did not stop
at the right point.

Giants are common in man and frequent in cattle. So far as
is known to the writer, they are unknown in horses, sheep, and
pigs, though these species can all be increased in size somewhat
above the normal by extreme feed and care in early life as well
as by selection of parents above the normal.

Neither giants nor dwarfs possess special interest to the
improver, because if we needed a smaller or a larger race than
the normal, we should not depend upon these occasional indi-
viduals, which are abnormal, to produce it. Their mention here
is for the purpose of making the student somewhat intelligent
on the processes of life, to do which requires a number and
variety of examples involving various phases of abnormal
development.

Arrested development of a single character or part. Dwarfing
may take place with respect to one or more parts or characters,
while others proceed to normal development, giving a more or
less distorted body.

This form of abnormality has many manifestations. In some
cases, for example, a part is entirely missing, as if the unit char-
acter had been lost, as in a case, known to the writer, of a man

WHEN DEVELOPMENT GOES WRONG 133

whose feet were attached directly to the body, the legs having
never developed.

A great variety of missing parts might be mentioned and
specimens innumerable may be seen in almost any museum. ^
One or both horns may fail to develop or the two may fuse into
one. A well-known calf in the Chicago stockyards never had
but one front leg and was used for years as a " penholder." ^

Men are frequently born minus one or both arms, or parts of
the arm, and a student of the writer's, normal in every other
way, had no forefinger on the right hand. Almost every neigh-
borhood will afford similar examples.

Not infrequently the nondevelopment of a part becomes a
regular and constitutional matter. The male narwhal, for ex-
ample, develops the canine tooth as a long, twisted tusk, often
attaining a length of seven or eight feet. The peculiarity is
that normally only the left tusk develops, the right remaining
rudimentary. In rare cases both are developed, but 7iever the
right without the left.

The snake has commonly but one lung, the other regularly
failing of development along with his rudimentary legs, which
are still represented by a few remains of bones in the pelvic
region of such large specimens as the python.^

The whale is not a fish but a mammal, like a cow. It is
developed from an old-time land animal, and its rudimentary
legs are still to be found as parts of the skeleton. Both teeth
and hair develop during the fetal life, but are absorbed and
disappear before birth, never developing afterward.

1 Abnormalities are sufficiently common and curious to give rise to their
special study, which is known as teratology.

2 A penholder is, in stockyard vernacular, an animal that is used to hold
a yard or pen, which, so long as it is occupied, belongs to the owner of the
occupant.

^ Snakes, of course, are developed from prehistoric species with legs and
probably at that time supplied with two lungs. The modern lethargic life ren-
ders such lung power unnecessary, and the restricted space in the elongated
and constricted body makes it also impossible. So the modern snake gets
along very well with one lung.

134

DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS

The ostrich is losing his useless wings, and those of the
apteryx have gone, except that some of the bones can yet be
found just under the skin of the breast. And so examples of
missing or disappearing parts could be multiplied indefinitely,
but enough have been given to show that development does not
always proceed regularly, and that the arrest of one part does
not necessarily prevent the development of others.

The most important phase of this subject to the general
student is in the field of the mental and moral characters, espe-
cially with people. Idiocy is but the arrested development of
one or all of the mental faculties, just as insanity is their break-
ing down from insufficient power originally or from overwork
or abuse in life.

Just as we have idiotic people, so we have idiots among
horses and dogs, a fact that destroys or greatly lessens their
value in proportion to the kind of work we expect them to do.
We have also insane individuals in both species, and some of
the most dangerous runaways are due to sudden insanity of the
horse, brought on by fright, old age, or disease.

Both horsemen and dog fanciers should understand that in
these two species we are dealing with mental faculties of an
order so high that any disturbance or shortage is a serious
matter. Other animals are of a much lower order of mentality
and we depend less upon their intelligence, so that relative
idiocy is not so noticeable, nor is insanity so likely to appear,
because they lead, upon the whole, a relatively tranquil life.
Occasionally, however, a steer loses his head, as when being
driven in a strange place, and when he does it is a good time
to find cover. 1

The most serious consequences follow the arrested develop-
ment of the mental and moral faculties in man. We are only
recently coming to recognize these unfortunate individuals as
degenerates and to realize their wholly dangerous character. A

1 This happens frequently about the stockyards in all markets, though
commonly animals in large numbers are extremely quiet.

WHEN DEVELOPMENT GOES WRONG 135

trip through any of our prisons by one who knows what to look
for and is quick to recognize signs of arrested development will
convince him that one of the problems of civilization is to deal
with members of our own race who are not sufficiently developed
to exist under civilized conditions except as a constant menace
to society. When these facts are more generally realized we
shall free ourselves of much maudlin sentiment and be on the
road to solving this most perplexing and awful problem, — the
problem of the human degenerate,^

Overdevelopment of a single part. Just as a part may fail
to develop without destroying the individual,^ so also can one
or more parts attain extreme development, while most or all of
the others may remain normal. A little of this commonly occurs
among giants, which are, in man, generally disproportionally
developed in the thighs ; indeed, most extremely tall people
get their height at this point.

Often the liver will begin growing and attain enormous size
(hypertrophy) ; or if one kidney is removed, the other may be-
come greatly enlarged through doing the work of both.

If the spleen is removed, the lymphatic glands of other parts
of the body become greatly enlarged (compensating hypertrophy),
a phenomenon akin to the sharpened hearing of blind people,
but only partially comparable from the fact that practice and
concentration of attention help to explain the skillful use of
hearing by the blind.

1 The extent to which the human animal may be destitute of one or more of
our higher faculties can be illustrated only by appealing to the fact that as
individuals are minus legs, arms, fingers, hands, ears, eyes, etc.j so they can
be and are destitute of many of the mental faculties necessary to an under-
standing and appreciation of the main facts and principles on which civilized
society exists. Such individuals cannot live at large except as a constant
menace. They should therefore, upon committing crime, be permanently with-
drawn from society.

2 Of course, if arrested development occurs in any vital part, death en-
sues. One of the most common cases of infant mortality is the failure of
the heart to complete its development and therefore to properly circulate
the blood, giving rise to the disease known as " blue baby," from the blue or
nonaerated blood.

136 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS

Doubling of parts. One of the most common of abnormalities
is the increase of numbers of parts, especially by doubling. An
extra finger or toe is by no means rare, and double thumbs or
even double hands are not unknown (see Fig. 20).

The horse, having developed from a five-toed ancestor, has
frequently an extra toe or two, as does the cow, though less
commonly. Certain strains of sheep have four horns instead

Fig. 20. Symmetry within the variable part. Here it would seem that an attempt

has been rriade to repeat the hand, or rather that an attempt at repetition of the

thumb has resulted in a doubling of the hand. — After Bateson

of, two, and occasionally the deer shows a cluster of horns instead
of the normal growth.

Insects frequently double a leg or a wing, and turtles and
snakes occasionally double the head ; ^ indeed, there is almost
no organ or part of the body that may not in rare instances
be doubled 2 (see Fig. 21).

Doubling among plants is exceedingly common, being noth-
ing more .or less than branching. Double clover heads are
found everywhere, double timothy heads rarely, and double
wheat still more rarely. Double ears of corn, or, more properly,
" fingered " ears, are frequently found, as are little ears on the
end of the tassel (see Fig. 19).

1 " Principles of Breeding," pp. 44, 64, 67.

2 The so-called double-headed people of the shows have been in every case
really twins united by fleshy growth, an abnormality that occasionally happens.

Fig. 21. Upper and lower surfaces of double-headed turtle compared with the

usual specimens two to three days old. Note effect on shell plates both above

and beneath. In this specimen the movements of the legs on opposite sides

were not well coordinated. — ■ After Bateson

137

138 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS

Fig. 22. A hand-
shaped corncob
showing a tendency
to branching of the
ear, not at all un-
common

The stooling of grain is a case of branching at the base and
is a real doubling, as are the four-, five-, or six-leaved clovers.
The whole matter of doubling is, of course,
the result of an extra cell division at the
proper point, — an abnormality that is some-
times hereditary but oftener not, though a
strong tendency exists for any physiological
habit proceeding
from internal
causes to become
hereditary.

Fusingof parts.
Quite the oppo-
site of doubling is
the fusing or joining of two parts
into one. Thus the two kidneys may
be joined at one end, making the
horseshoe kidney. A pair of horns
may be compounded into one. Two
fingers of the human hand or the
two toes of the pig ^ may be united
into one.

When unit characters get mis-
placed. Perhaps the most remarkable
fact of development and differentia-
tion is seen when a normal struc-
ture develops in an abnormal place.

Thus occasionally a tooth will develop roebuck are united into a single

., r £ J.^ J.1 '£ a_i beam for a considerable distance,

m the roof of the mouth, as if the ^ut afterwards they separate. -

germ' of it had in some way got After liateson

misplaced but was able to grow in

its new place, like a tree that is transplanted. Sometimes the
eye of an insect will develop not as an eye but as an antenna.

1 These are the so-called solid- or mule-hoofed hogs. This abnormality
arises frequently and may be readily propagated, as it happens to be fairly
hereditary. See " Principles of Breeding," pp. 55, 66.

Fig. 23. Compounding of paired
organs : the two horns of this

WHEN DEVELOPMENT GOES WRONG 139

Milk secretion is the function of glands that are normally
confined to special parts of the body. It is not unknown, how-
ever, that the tissues of various parts of the body, especially in

Fig. 24. Abnormal horny growth on the head of a deer. Specimen in
State Museum, Augusta, Maine. Courtesy of the superintendent

the region of the lymphatics, may alter their function and
secrete real milk.

This development of a part out of place is not common, but
it occurs frequently enough to show the fact that each part of
the body is a kind of definite unit quite independent of other
parts, all of which casts important light upon the semi-independ-
ent nature of unit characters.

I40 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS

Abnormal growths. Not only do unit characters occasionally
get mixed up and jumbled together in quite remarkable fashion,
but in rare cases growths occur which, if not formless, at least
are in no sense of the term normal body growths. Often these
are distorted imitations of the real part, as on the deer's head
shown in Fig. 24 ; but often, if not commonly, they are over-
growths of some part of the body, induced possibly by irritation
or perhaps by poisons, as in galls, in the characteristic tubercle
of the disease known as tuberculosis, and in its namesake, the
tubercle of the legumes.

Of this general character, too, is the tumor, that perverse
overgrowth due to disorders not understood, but which, from the
fact that they " have no typical termination," are not only
extremely troublesome but often dangerous to life.

With this glimpse at the abnormal we are prepared to resume
the normal and to discuss briefly how unit characters behave in
transmission.

Summary. Development may go wrong in several ways. First, some
part may not develop at all, or, on the other hand, it may far exceed its
normal size or function. A part may even be doubled, two parts may fuse
into one, or normal characters may get misplaced. The whole organism may
exceed the normal size or it may stop short of the usual, and in rare cases
abnormal growths may occur in almost any part of the body.

Exercise. Make collections of plants or parts of plants, including fruits
and flowers, in which development has been in some way unusual. Such a
collection is not representative of life processes, but it does show what may
possibly happen when development goes wrong, and it fixes the conception
of unit characters.

Learn by observation and inquiry all that you can about unusual animals
in the neighborhood, either in regard to color markings or abnormal parts,
getting photographs and accurate descriptions wherever possible. Let a col-
lection of such specimens and photographs accumulate in the school for
future studies in abnormal behavior during differentiation.

CHAPTER XI
HOW CHARACTERS BEHAVE IN TRANSMISSION

Characters tend to combine in definite mathematical proportions • Characters
that do not blend • Mendel's law of hybrids • Dominant and recessive
characters • Pure races may spring from crossing • Very few individuals
pure • A second method of improvement • Improvement by hybridization
complicated • Mutation and mutants • Origin of new and improved strains

The manner and machinery of transmission are exceedingly
simple, but the mystery is, how so many and such different unit
characters are contained in so small a bit of living matter, for
that is all that passes over from parent to offspring. Many
ingenious theories have been offered in explanation, but the
mystery itself has never yet been solved. We do know much,
however, of what in the end really happens, and in that, after
all, the chief practical interest lies.

Characters tend to combine in definite mathematical propor-
tions. In the .case of the white and yellow corn, for example,
if a yellow silk is fertilized by a white pollen grain, the resulting
kernel will be a " half blood " ; that is, one half its color tenden-
cies will be yellow and one half white. If such a kernel now be
planted where its progeny will again be fertilized by white pollen,
the result will be a three-fourths white and one-fourth yellow
generation. If the same be done again, the next generation
will have seven eighths of the white " blood " with only one
eighth remaining of the yellow, and so on indefinitely in regularly
increasing and decreasing proportions. Of course the opposite
result, but on the same plan, would have followed if the half
blood had been bred successively with yellow rather than with
white varieties.

Having found the principle, we can readily calculate the
*' blood " of the progeny of any known mixture. For example,

141

142 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS

the blood of a three-fourths white bred with a seven-eighths white

3 .1. 7

would be ^ — ^, or i| white with the remaining -f^ yellow, —

this much for single kernels or for a whole generation of known
mixed breeding.

Suppose now that white and yellow corn be planted together
in the same field in equal proportions. What will be the nature
of the crop ? The answer to this question covers one of the most
important points in plant or animal improvement, for there is
no essential difference in principle between the two, and what
applies to one applies equally to the other, so far as principles
are concerned.

In such a field planted equally with white and yellow corn
the first question is. Will all the kernels be mixed ? Manifestly
not. Under the law of chance ^ a yellow silk, for example, will
have equal opportunities of being fertilized by a yellow or by a
white pollen grain ; that is to say, the ovule stands equal chances
of developing as a pure or as a mixed kernel, and the same may
be said of any kernel in the field, provided of course that the
number of silks and of pollen grains are equal, as was specified
in the problem.

When the season is over, the whole population of corn ker-
nels of the field will then be as follows : on the stalks arising
from yellow kernels ^ will be pure yellow and J- will be mixed,
yellow and white ; on the stalks arising from white kernels |
will be pure white and ^ will be mixed, yellow and white.

Now, as the corn was planted half and half, each kind of
stalk represents half the crop. So we have for the field as
a whole, \ pure yellow ; \ mixed, white on yellow ; \ pure
white ; \ mixed, yellow on white.

But as white pollen on yellow silk gives the same mixture as
yellow pollen on white silk, we have our population reduced to
the following : J pure yellow, ^ mixed, \ pure white, from which

1 " Principles of Breeding," pp. 365, 504.

HOW CHARACTERS BEHAVE

143

we deduce that with reference to a single character the total
offspring resulting from mixed breeding between two races, in
equal numbers where no selection is involved, will be in the
proportion of | pure of one variety, ^ mixed, and 1 pure of the
other. This is in the proportion of 25 per cent, 50 per cent,
and 25 per cent of the total population, or of i, 2, i. If the
proportion between yellow and white had been as 2 to I instead
of even, then the proportion of the pure and mixed kernels
would have been different but still definite and easily computed.

Let us now see what would happen if this crop of pure white,
pure yellow, and mixed should be planted together again, each
sort in its true proportion ; that is, just as would happen in
nature, supposing all forms to be equally vigorous and equally
able to withstand natural selection. We will tabulate this because
it gets rapidly complicated. In the table let the different combi-
nations planted be represented by the column headings across
the top, and the different kinds of pollen produced be repre-
sented by the headings down the side.

Remembering that every kind of pollen will fall on every
kind of silk, and in definite proportions, the results are as follows,
the body of the table repre-
senting the various kinds
of progeny and the footing
at the bottom showing the
final and total population.

In this table the expo-
nents represent the num-
ber of infusions of pure blood ; that is, y pollen on y silk gives
j|/2 kernels, or two infusions of y, as compared to the y of yw,
which represents the first mixture of yellow and white, and so
on for other combinations.

Now these facts are significant : first, we have all the combi-
nations possible between y and iv as the result of two admixtures ;
second, with all this admixture for two generations we still have
some white {y^) and some yellow {w^) remaining as pure as if

zyzv

■W"'

^2 . .

2 yxv .
■ufl- . .

2 y^7cf

2 yHv
Ay'^w^
2 yw^

yht^
2yw^

Total, y + \y^w -\- 6yhc'^ + \yzv^ -\- TiA

144 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS

no mixture had taken place in the field ; third, the coefficients
expressing proportion as well as the exponents expressing
infusions of blood stand in the exact form of the binomial
theorem, that is, we have here reproduced the binomial (j -h w)^.
Knowing this general theorem, the student can readily write
the color or blood combination for any number of infusions
with any degree of mixed breeding.

Another significant fact must be noted, namely, that although
this formula becomes rapidly complicated with successive genera-
tions,^ there are always a few individuals remaining just as
pure as if no mixed breeding had been done, all of which means
that in free and unrestricted breeding all possible combinations
will take place. In systematic improvement it is the business
of the breeder to allow only such blood combinations to be made
as will result in desirable combinations and favorable results,
preventing all others.

Characters that do not blend. When diverse characters are
thus brought together, two very different results may follow.
They may blend into a single new character, in which case
our figures show the proportions within the bloody or they may
remain distinct as two independent characters within the same
individual. Stature and size as well as many colors blend freely,
but not all characters behave in that simple way. For example,
white and black blend freely in the human race, and the off-
spring of white and negro are mulattoes of various shades,
according to the respective infusions ; but colors do not blend
in pigs, which are either black, white, or spotted, never roan
or mulatto. Some colors blend in horses (roan), some do not.
Some breeds of catde have blended colors (Shorthorns) ; in
others the colors remain distinct (Holstein-Friesian).

And so with characters generally. Many will blend and many
others will not. When they will not blend, then the appearance
is still less a guide to the real hereditary qualities, and under
these circumstances it is little or no index to what will happei)

* " Principles of Breeding," p. 506.

HOW CHARACTERS BEHAVE 1 45

when the mixture is bred. This fact was long a great stum-
blingblock to breeders, involving the business of improvement
in unfortunate and, as we now know, unnecessary mystery.

MendePs law of hybrids. ^ This so-called Mendel's law,
named for its first discoverer (I say first, for it was lost till
rediscovered), attempts to predict what will be the real char-
acter of the offspring of mixed or hybrid parents when the
characters of the mixture will not blend.

What really happens in such a case is this : The hybrid
offspring, instead of possessing a new character which is a
kind of mean or blend between the different characters of the
two parents, will contain them both; and when these hybrids
are bred together, their offspring will be not of one but of
three distinct kinds, namely, a group that is like the one origi-
nal and pure parent, another group that is like the other
original and pure parent, and a larger group that is hybrid
like its immediate parents.

For example, let x and y represent any two nonblending
characters in separate individuals. What will happen when
they are bred together, and when their hybrid offspring are
afterwards bred among themselves t

The problem stands thus : One parent produces both x and y
characters. The other parent also produces both x and y char-
acters. What are the combinations that will take place .? Mani-
festly these combinations will follow the law of chance. In one
case out of four the two ;t-'s will unite, making pure ;r's {x^) ;
in one case out of four also the two y\ will unite, making pure
j^'s (jj/2) ; and in the two other cases the x and the/ will unite,
making again xy offspring in numbers equal to both the others ;
that is, the total result of breeding together a lot of hybrid indi-
viduals with mixed characters x and y will be in the proportion

1 Mendel, an Austrian monk, carried on experiments in his garden that
brought out the principle here stated, but all of which was lost and lay un-
known for many years. For a more extended account, see " Principles of
Breeding," p. 513.

146 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS

oi x^ + 2 xy +y^, in which x"^ andj^ ^re pure as to this character,
though descended from mixed parents on both sides.

Now the x^ part of this offspring, having no j/ characters, will
continue to breed pure x as well as if no j were involved in the
make-up of its ancestry, and likewise for the jj/^.

The 2 xy part of this generation is hybrid like the parents,
and, when bred together, will reproduce again the same general
character of offspring as their hybrid parents of the last genera-
tion, namely, jt^ + 2 xy -\-y'^ ; that is to say, when hybrids of
nonblending characters are bred together they will produce three
kinds of offspring. One will be like the one pure parent ; another
will be like the other pure parent, and the third group, consti-
tuting one half the total numbers, will remain hybrid. The two
others will breed pure, but the hybrid will not.

Dominant and recessive characters. In truth, it is seldom in
practice that all these three classes stand clearly out. Some char-
acters are dominant over others ; that is, more easily detected,
such as strong colors over weak, huge size over small, etc.

Suppose now that we take such a case, representing the
dominant or easily detected character by the letter D^ and the
recessive, as it is called, or the obscure character by the letter r.
The result of breeding Dr hybrids with themselves will then
beZ^+2Z>/'-f r^.

Now what will this kind of a population look like ? The D^,
being pure, will of course be easily seen. The same is true of
the f^y though less distinct, because the recessive characters are
less conspicuous ; that is, 2 5 per cent of the population is clearly
jy^ and another 25 per cent is as certainly r^. But what about
the remaining 50 per cent .?

Clearly this 50 per cent {Dr) will look like pure D, because
the r character, though actually present, will not be noticed,
being recessive.

Accordingly the whole population, instead of looking like
25/72+ ^oDr+ 2$r^, as it really is, will appear like 75 D'^ +
2$ r^, the eye being unable to distinguish between the 25 Z> and

HOW CHARACTERS BEHAVE

147

the SoDr; that is to say, where one character is dominant and
the other recessive, it is simply impossible to separate the pure
dominant from the mixed dominant and recessive by appear-
ances merely. It can only be done by a resort to the breeding
test, when the really pure Z^^'s will produce only Z^'s, while the
real Drs will produce back again the characteristic Z^ -f 2 Dr
+ r^ with its 25 per cent of pure r's. As has been already

Fig. 25. Showing albino sire and black dam with their offspring, all black.
Below, a pair of the hybrid offspring and their litter (see text). From photo-
graphs furnished by W. E. Castle, Harvard University

explained, no such difficulty exists with regard to the pure reces-
sive character, because from the first those that look like re-
cessive are recessive. For this reason breeders are always glad
when a desired character proves to be recessive, because it can
be so much more easily separated from its associated character
than can a dominant.

This behavior of unit characters in hybrids is beautifully illus-
trated by the work of Professor Castle with guinea pigs, as

148 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS

shown in Fig. 25. Here we have a hybrid offspring from an
albino sire and a black dam. The offspring are all black, so
black is dominant over white. Their offspring are, however, of
two kinds, both black and white, but in the proportion of 3 to i .
Of this group of four, therefore, only one, the white, can with
certainty be counted upon to breed true. Some of the blacks
will also breed true, but only the breeding test will determine
which they are.

This whole matter is up in full force in all attempts at im-
provement by crossing, whether among plants or animals, which
is the reason why animal breeders especially avoid this form of
breeding, though it is a favorite method in the improvement of
plants, which can be produced in large numbers.^

When the parents differ in two unit characters, the case is
more complicated, but the principle remains the same, namely,
that all possible combinations will occur and a perfectly definite
number of each may be expected. Again, Professor Castle's work
with guinea pigs illustrates the point especially well.

In Fig. 26 are shown a dark-colored smooth-haired and an
albino rough-haired parent. Their offspring were all dark and
rough as shown in the middle figure, but some of their progeny
were smooth and white as shown in the lower figure, while others
were like each of the original parents, and still others like the
first hybrid ; that is, all possible combinations had been made.
In this case the Mendelian expectation is 3 : 3 : 9 : i .

Pure races may spring from crossing. The facts just pre-
sented show Xhdit for characters that blend, the hybrid will breed
pure as a single new race, but that for characters that do not
blend, the individuals may or may not be pure and may or may
not breed true.

All the facts go to show that whether the offspring of hybrid
parents consist of three groups as when only one character is
involved, or whether they consist of many groups as when two or

1 The student of breeding should understand, however, that crossing is
equally effective with animals and plants, except that the very large numbers
involved makes it too expensive for most individual animal breeders.

HOW CHARACTERS BEHAVE

149

more characters are involved the groups may, by patience, be
separated and new races estabhshed that will breed pure. The
greatest difficulty arises in separating for the dominant char-
acters, but the test is in the descendants.

It will be noted too, in this connection, that in these new
races an absolutely new association of characters is often brought

Fig. 26. A dark smooth parent and an albino rough parent. Below is their dark
rough offspring, and at the bottom one of the types that appeared in the grand-
children (see text), a new type associating the short coat and the white color,
— After Castle, 1905, Publication 23, Carnegie Institution, Washington, B.C.

about as when the white color and the smooth coat have been
brought together from two different sources. In this way new
races that will breed true may be got out of a mixture whether
the characters blend or not.

Very few individuals pure. What has just been said has
reference to characters and not to individuals. As will be
seen below, it is a difficult task to find an individual that is

150 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS

pure with reference to all his characters after they have once
become entangled with others.

A second method of improvement. It is very clear that here
we possess a means of improvement quite different from that of
simple selection, and, moreover, it is one that will somewhat
suddenly give rise to new races. The chief difficulty is to find
and identify the comparatively few individuals that are pure
with reference to all essential characters, and this is a reason
for reducing the characters in breeding to the fewest possible.

As to nonessential characters the new race may remain
hybrid for all the breeder cares. For example, if he is trying to
combine amount and quality of milk, he will get along faster if
he pays no attention to the color of the cows, and selects only
the few that have the character he is after, leaving the color, for
the present at least, to behave as a hybrid, to be managed later
after the high milkers have been isolated.

Improvement by hybridization complicated. When but one
nonblending character is involved, a full 50 per cent of the
offspring of hybrid parents is pure as to that character, it being
equally proportioned between the two parents.

If, however, another character be involved, then only a small
proportion of the offspring that are pure as to the first char-
acter are pure also as to the second character, and so on for
additional characters.

If all the desired characters are recessive, then all that is
required is to wait until the rare individual appears that has these
characters and no others ; but if, as in most cases, some of the
characters sought to be retained are dominant, the separation will
be a tedious operation.

Mutation and mutants. Accidental crossing in nature is
constantly producing new strains, most of which go down in the
struggle for existence, but some of which are sufficiently vigor-
ous and prolific to persist. They are seldom equally vigorous or
equally prolific with the parent strains, else they would long ago
have developed into good species. These strains can of course

HOW CHARACTERS BEHAVE 151

be seized upon when found, and it will be discovered, as we
should expect, that a few of them will breed true, but that most
of them will break up, like other hybrids, into a variety of forms.

Apparently quite independent of this, however, new forms
occasionally arise by methods that do not seem to involve cross-
ing. For example, polled or hornless cattle occasionally arise
spontaneously, as we say ; that is, without crossing or other
known cause. Albino strains arise frequently in nearly all races.
Thus we have white cattle, horses, sheep, dogs, cats, pigs ; and,
among wild animals, deer, bears, wolves, rabbits, mice, and rats,
most of which are known to breed pure.

In a few cases, notably with sheep, the albino strain has
been the favorite for obvious reasons, and the older stock, the
brown or so-called black sheep, is well-nigh lost. With pigs
the preference is about evenly divided between the black and
the white.i

Among plants mutation is even more common or else more
noticeable than among animals, and much of it arises from what
is technically known as bud variation. Thus a peach tree may
bear peaches in the usual way for a number of years, when
suddenly one or two limbs or possibly the entire tree may
bear a crop of nectarines for a year or so, and then resume
the bearing of peaches.

The moss rose is a mutant of the common wild rose, which
is the parent of all cultivated varieties. The strangest thing
about bud variation is that the mutants thus arising often breed
true, as do the moss rose and the nectarine.

The weeping habit among the willow, birch, beech, and other
species of trees ; the appearance of smooth among thorny or
hairy strains, like the smooth gooseberry ; and the reverse of
this, namely, the sudden appearance of hairy or fuzzy strains
among the smooth, — all these are now known as mutants.

1 Certain red strains of swine have been built up mostly by selection, though
possibly to some extent by mutation, the only red foundation being the reddish-
tan tinge on the end of the hair of the wild boar.

152 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS

Such radical departures from type were formerly recognized
and popularly designated as "sports," as if nature in some
sudden antic disposition, at play in her workshop, were disre-
garding all ordinary laws of procedure.

The modern name of mutants is better, and while these sud-
den departures are often independent of crossing, it is signifi-
cant that they frequently breed true, showing that the changes
involved are sufficiently profound to affect the germ plasm.

The selection and isolation of desirable mutants, therefore,
constitutes a third method of improvement of animals and plants,
the one most practiced by Luther Burbank.

Origin of new and improved strains. Three methods of im-
provement are therefore open to the breeder: (i) selection in
imitation of nature ; {2) crossing, with the understanding that
new strains may also be shaped up by selection ; (3) mutation,
the fortunate mutants being seized upon and made the most of
as a free gift of nature to the breeder's hand.

Doubtless all these means of changes in species are in opera-
tion everywhere in nature. Darwin expounded the first and
De Vries the last, and a multitude of evolutionary literature
exists. The student who is desirous of pursuing the general
question of origin of species in nature will find the subject
briefly sketched in Chapters XVII-XXI of Part II, with some
standard references.

Summary. When distinct races are crossed hybrids are produced be-
tween all the characters involved. Some of these characters will blend,
and the result will be a new combination which will thereafter breed true
as regards all such blended characters.

But other characters will not blend, remaining distinct, in which case the
gametes will continue to produce not one new and blended character, but
both old characters in their original purity. Under the law of chance one
fourth of the offspring would possess the character of the one parent in its
purity, one fourth that of the other, and half would remain hybrid.

Inasmuch as some characters are naturally dominant and others recessive,
the recessive individuals can be detected only where the recessive stands

HOW CHARACTERS BEHAVE

153

alone, the 50 per cent hybrids containing both dominant and recessive
being indistinguishable from the pure dominants.

This applies to single characters and not to entire individuals, which
rarely are all dominant or all recessive.

Exercise. Make some crosses in corn and then plant the crossbred seed
and cross again with a third different color of distinct variety, as white,
yellow, and sweet, or white, yellow, and red.

References. 1. " Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection."
Darwin.

2. " Origin of Species by Mutation." De Vries.

3. " Mendel's Principles of Heredity." Bateson.

4. " Principles of Breeding " (chap, xiv, sec. xii). Davenport.

CHAPTER XII

HOW THE OFFSPRING COMPARES WITH THE PARENT, OR
DESCENT WITH MODIFICATION

The complex nature of heredity • The offspring not Hke the parent •
Mediocrity the common lot, whatever the parentage ; regression • Some
offspring better and some worse than their parents • The exceptional par-
ent and his offspring • Progression • The exceptional offspring and his
parent • Reversion • Degeneracy

Though the general process of improvement by selection is
simple enough, certain additional facts and principles are in-
volved with which the breeder needs to be acquainted in order
to make the selection to the best advantage.

The complex nature of heredity. The most disconcerting
principle in all improvement operations lies back of the obvious
fact that the offspring is not like the parent. Having, as he
nearly always does, two parents, he could not of course be like
them both. The fact is, however, that for the most part he is
not like either one of them, nor yet is he like the two combined.
The most that can be said is that the offspring resembles his
parents, and that all his characters are to be found somewhere
in his parentage.

This all means that transmission is more a matter of family
or general ancestral influence than it is of the two particular
individuals that happen to be the immediate parents.

It has already been stated that every individual, whatever his
personality, transmits all the characters of the race or family
to which he belongs, and no others. Some of these characters
may not be evident in his own make-up, but if they are in the
blood of the family, they will be transmitted.

All this is not saying that all characters will be transmitted
with the same intensity nor with the same probability of being

154

DESCENT WITH MODIFICATION 155

evident in the offspring. Indeed, it is well known that all char-
acters are not transmitted with equal intensity, but that rather,
in general, the intensity of transmission is somewhere in pro-
portion to the combined intensities of the two parents. This, of
course, produces results quite different from either parent taken
singly, and this, too, is true in general only, and not in every
individual instance. The visible characters of one parent, there-
fore, or even of both, are not an absolute index of what will
appear in the offspring any more than they are an absolute index
of their real make-up. Indeed, there is no guide to what will
happen in individual cases, though enough studies have been
made to show about what does happen in the long run ; that is,
how offspring in general compare with the parentage.

The best studies that have ever been made in this field were
those of Galton ^ upon the stature of English people. I repro-
duce his table here, for it shows, as nothing else can, the rela-
tion between offspring in general and their parentage, though it
may be remarked that later and similar studies confirm the prin-
ciple as to other characters and in other races, as with milk
production in cattle (see ''Principles of Breeding," p. 498^).

In this table the heights of 928 adult offspring are classified
and compared with the stature of their parents. The heights
of the offspring (adult children) are listed at the top in columns
running from 62.2 inches and below to 73.2 inches and above,
with intervals of one inch. The heights of the midparents are
listed on the left in groups also an inch apart, running from
64.5 inches and below to 72.5 inches and above.

By midparental height is meant one half the combined height
of father and mother after increasing the mother s height by
one eighth (12.5 percent), because Galton found that in general
women are one eighth shorter than men, or rather that their
height must be multiplied by 1.08 to convert them into " male
equivalents." In this table all female statures have been so

1 An English scientist, cousin of Darwin, and author of "Natural Inherit-
ance," which see, together with " Principles of Breeding," pp. 479-482.

156 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS

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DESCENT WITH MODIFICATION 157

treated, thus eliminating tlie matter of sex, and all the " chil-
dren," 1 whether male or female, are thus considered as males.
The rest of the table is self-explanatory. The heights of mid-
parents are classified to half inches and recorded in the column
at the left. The height of each adult " child " is recorded in its
proper column and in a row opposite the height of his mid-
parent, after which totals are added both ways.

Thus we see that of the whole 928 people whose stature was
taken, 120 were 68.3 inches high (see column 9). Of these,
I was born from 72. 5 -inch parents ; 3 were born from 7 1.5 -inch
parents ; 12 were born from 70. 5 -inch parents, and so on from
the shorter parentage. In all there were 928 children and 205
pairs of parents, — of course duplicated in the case of brothers.

We are now ready to look a little further into the meaning of
this table.

The offspring not like the parent. The very first fact that
attracts our attention in this table is that the offspring are not
much like their immediate parents, but that all sorts of parents
(short, medium, or tall) produce all sorts of children (short,
medium, or tall), and that the correspondence in height be-
tween specific parents and their particular offspring is not very
close. In other words, like offspring may be produced by very
dissimilar parents (see any column of the table) ; and, corre-
spondingly, like parents, or even the same parents, in succes-
sive generations, may produce very dissimilar offspring (see any
row in the table, as, for example, the very variable offspring of
68. 5 -inch midparents). This important fact lies at the basis of
all breeding, as it does of most sociological questions, involving
parentage.

Mediocrity the common lot, whatever the parentage ; re-
gression. Looked at closely, mediocrity seems to be the com-
mon lot. The average height of the people in this table is

1 The student must remember that in this case the word " children " is used
to mean simply oifspring in general. These children were fully grown, and
their heights are strictly comparable with those of their parents.

158 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS

about 68.6 inches for parents and 68.0 inches for children
(see columns 17 and 16). The most significant fact about this
table is its tendency to cluster about these average values, which
are nearest represented by column 9 and row g. Where these
two lines cross is the densest part of the table, — around the
number 34. Note, too, how the arrays (columns or rows of
figures) resemble the frequency distribution with which we
became familiar in the chapter on Type and Variability. Each
of these arrays has the characteristic shape, — large in the
middle, dwindling at both ends. Moreover, this large middle
is in all cases, whatever the parentage, not far from the middle,
point of this table, though the table is somewhat skewed by
the difference in the parental heights. To note more particu-
larly, consider the offspring of about the average parent (68.5
inches, row g). Though these parents were all of an even
height, their offspring were distributed from below 62.2 inches
to 73.2, but the largest number (48) is very near to the average
of the race.

Again, note the offspring of the 65.5-inch parents, which are
below the average height of parents. Here the range in the off-
spring is from below 62.2 inches, as before, but stops at 72.2,
with the highest numbers (11) at 66.2 and 67.2, both taller
than their parents. Indeed, of this whole population of 66
children of the 65.5-inch parents, all but 22, or exactly two
thirds, are better than their parents.

Still again, note the offspring of the 7 1.5 -inch parents, which
are extremely tall. Here the range is from 65.2 inches to above
73.2, or over an inch shorter than their parents. Again, of the
43 children of these extremely tall parents, 30, or nearly three
fourths, are shorter than their parents. Again, of the 43 chil-
dren of these extremely tall parents, 30, or nearly three fourths,
are shorter than their parents.

The principle is, that whatever the parents, — short, medium,
or tall, — the offspring tend strongly toward the mean of the
race. This principle of tendency toward mediocrity is known

DESCENT WITH MODIFICATION 159

as regression or the pull of the ancestry. The reason of it is
that some of these short parents are children of tall people, and
in these cases the height is helped out by the stature of the
grandparent. Also, some of the extremely tall parents were
themselves children of short grandparents, all of which lessens
greatly their powers of transmitting as much stature as they
themselves possess.

Some offspring better and some worse than their parents.
A careful study of this table shows that whatever the parent,
whether mediocre, inferior, or exceptional, the offspring will
take the form of a distribution extending both ways from a
mean or mode, said mean or mode being not far from that of
the parent. If the parent is above the average of the race, the
majority of the offspring will be below the parent ; if, however,
the parent is below the average, then the majority of the off-
spring will be better than their parents.

The exceptional parent and his offspring. There is a foolish
notion that preachers' sons are especially likely to go wild. Let
us analyze this problem in the light of this table. In the first
place, admitting the parent to be exceptional, what are the
chances of the offspring being also exceptional ? This is an
important question, — indeed, one of the most important in
all studies in heredity.

Substituting general excellence in place of stature for the
moment, let us refer to the table. We see at once that an excep-
tional parent, or even an exceptional midparent, which means
two exceptional parents, is by no means certain of exceptional
offspring, unless, indeed, the exceptional quality is of many
generations standing. Take the case of the 70.. 5 -inch parents,
— two inches above the average. Of their entire offspring (68),
I was almost a dwarf, 5 1 were shorter than their parents, and
7 were distinctly below the average of the race. This is one
side of the question and accounts for the physiological fact that
presidents, preachers, and other notable men are bound to pro-
duce some very ordinary people, all of which helps us to realize

l6o DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS

that mediocrity is the most common and the most Hkely lot of
man, and that regression is always at work.

Progression. Now let us look at the other side of the ques-
tion and see what is to be found after having disposed of this
relatively large number of mediocre individuals, and let us see
if, after all, the exceptional parent has not something to his
advantage in the matter of offspring.

Note again that the other end of this array of the offspring
of the 70. 5 -inch parents shows 17 individuals, or exactly one
fourth, better than their exceptionally good parents. Not only
is this true, but the higher we get among the exceptional parents,
— 71.5, 72.5, etc., — the more is this true and the larger is the
proportion of exceptional offspring. This is progression, and, as
a principle, it is just as true and just as much to be counted on
as are regression and mediocrity.

This principle of progression is the one that insures the
results from natural selection and the survival of the fittest in
nature, just as it is the one that insures that selection anyzvhere
will be followed by offspring, some portion of which, 7tot all, will
be a distinct improveme^it over even their exceptional parents.
It is on this principle that we rely for most of our improvement
of domesticated animals and plants, and as it is the most impor-
tant principle in evolution, the student is urged to remember it.

The promptness and rapidity with which improvement follows
selection under this principle of progression is best shown by
the opposite table exhibiting the results of Dr. Hopkins's ex-
periments in altering the oil content of the grain of corn.

In this experiment ears of the highest and others of the
lowest oil content obtainable were planted in successive years.
The table shows the results in the crop both as to distribution
and average for each of nine years, and is the best exhibition
known to the author of the principle of progression and the
results of selection.

In the study of this table it will be noticed that the oil content
of the original seed was 4.70 per cent, but that the strain

DESCENT WITH MODIFICATION

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1 62 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS

selected for high oil produced in the ninth year a crop as high
as 7.29 per cent oil and one as low as 2.58 per cent. Note,
also, the rapid rate at which the distributions separate from
each other, — so rapid, indeed, that in the fourth crop (1900) they
no longer overlap but entirely part company ; that is, the lowest
of the high oil is higher than the highest of the low oil.^

If the offspring of the exceptional parent is in many cases so
decidedly exceptional, how did the tradition start about the
mediocre sons of great men ? Naturally enough. Some of these
sons are truly mediocre, even inferior, as we have seen, and in
this, as in other matters, a few cases make a great impression,
provided they are sufficiently striking. Every preacher's son that
goes wrong attracts special attention, — '- even more attention than
does the long line of divines like the Edwardses or the Adamses,
in which greatness almost invariably descended from father to
son for many generations. This impression is akin to that
other popular fallacy that people choose opposites in matrimony ;
that is, that tall people prefer short mates ; dark-haired prefer
light ; phlegmatic prefer vivacious, etc. Now the facts are, so
far as they have been studied, that people prefer and choose
their like to a surprisingly large degree. For example, the
correlation or ratio of correspondence between husbands and
wives amounts to 0.28 in stature and about the same in eye
and hair color, whereas if they tended to choose opposites,
it would be negative, and if they were indifferent, it would be
zero. The fact is, that if we see one tall woman with a little
husband, or the reverse, the grotesqueness of it all strikes our
attention and we remark about it, reminding ourselves again of
the "law of dissimilars" ; whereas we fail to notice the large
number of properly assorted people that pass and repass, and
thus overlook the real law that men and women in general mate
by similarities and get along best when they do so. These few
illustrations will show the need of accurate and somewhat exten-
sive observation before hastening to generalization.

^ F^or a fuller discussion, see " Principles of Breeding," pp. 492-499.

DESCENT WITH MOrJIFICATION 163

The exceptional offspring and his parent. A glance at the table
on page 156 will show another great principle in transmission,
namely, that a given class of offspring may be produced in vari-
ous ways. For example, the heights of offspring as recorded in
column 1 3 are clearly exceptional. These people are over six feet
tall, but they were produced by all sorts of parents from 72.5 inches
doivn to 6s. S- While the parents were thus distributed, yet the
greatest rmmber of exceptional people (11) came from mediocre
parentage, but the greatest proportion of tall people came from
extremely tall parentage. Thus the 1 1 of this column were the
product of 183 families (see column 16); while as many as 7
were produced by 19 midparents that were three inches taller,
— another evidence of regression and of progression as well.

Reversion. When we see how many tall people beget short
children and how many tall children come of short parents (see
rows h and k in the table), we are not surprised that occasion-
ally an unaccountable case will turn up, as when a red-headed
boy is born of black-haired parents, and nobody can remember
even a red-headed grandparent. Aye, remember ; there 's the
trouble.. The total ancestry runs back for many generations and
we remember but a few, — rarely back of the grandparent, —
whereas each of us has over two thousand ancestors within ten
generations. In the case of the red-headed boy some one of them
was in all likelihood red-headed, and this that has turned up is
a " reversion " to that ancestor ; for every individual transmits
all the characters of his ancestry, and anything that is trans-
mitted may at any time become dominant and then visible.
That is about all there is of the matter of reversion or throw-
ing back, about which such a "to do" has been made. As a
physiological fact it is interesting ; as a matter in plant or
animal improvement it hardly applies, for as soon as systematic
selection is a little while practiced, the chance of reversion
rapidly reduces to practically nothing.

Degeneracy. This is a matter of importance in human affairs
rather than in those of the animal and plant, but facts such as

1 64 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS

this table shows, lead us to look with suspicion upon the indi-
vidual that is *' born short." He may be the offspring of excel-
lent parentage, as in column 2, rows e and g, in which case the
pull of regression will be greatly in his favor. But, on the other
hand, he may be the product of bad parentage, as in column 2,
rows k, /, and m, in which cases the matter is well-nigh hopeless,
as many a poor girl has found, who has married a scamp to
" reform him." He has broken her heart and wasted her life
all because she did not know ,the simplest facts about transmis-
sion. If a man is well born, it is upon him to show his breeding,
if he can, and if not, to prove that his ancestry was at least
respectable and not much below mediocrity ; and if he cannot do
this, he is a great risk as a partner in any business. Disregard
of these simple facts is responsible for the wholesale production
of hereditary criminals, and until laws are framed and executed
to prevent unbridled reproduction among degenerates, we shall
continue to sow the wind and reap the whirlwind. Visit our
prisons and poorhouses and be convinced that while some of
the inmates are normal men with a bad history, most of them
are there because of their unfortunate ancestry. The sooner we
realize that, on the average, men are about what their ancestry
as a whole is, the better it will be both for individuals and for
the community. Study the left-hand side of the table in breed-
ing com for high and low oil (p. 161), and see how rapidly de-
generation proceeds when parentage is restricted to inferior
lines. Then also reflect on the danger of reversion if inferior
blood is mixed with the good. The only safety in human af-
fairs, as in those of animals and plants, lies in a long line of
selected ancestry or, in other words, in good blood.

All characters that have ever been studied behave substantially
the same as stature, and this table of Galton's, therefore, may
be regarded as exhibiting the general law of heredity for all
characters. By this we see that we are not to expect that the
offspring will be like the parent except in a general way, and
within more or less general limits ; that we need not be surprised

DESCENT WITH MODIFICATION 165

at almost anything that may happen in individual cases, from
which we infer that we shall never be able to predict from the
parents what a particular offspring will be, but that we can tell
very close as to what they will be in the long run and on the
average ; and that the more uniform the ancestry, the more
accurate will the prediction be, and the more uniformity will
there be among individuals. We see, too, by the principle of
progression, that under selection the correspondence between
parent and offspring becomes rapidly closer.

Summary. The individual offspring is seldom like the parent. It may
be better (progression) or it may be worse (regression), but in general the
offspring is like the parentage as a whole. More exceptional offspring arise
from common parentage than from exceptional parentage because mediocrity
is the common lot, yet the proportion of exceptional offspring is higher from
the exceptional parent than from the mediocre.

Reversion shows that as long as even a trace of old-time characters
exists, the gametes are not absolutely pure, and an occasional appearance of
such ancient characters is inevitable. Being ancient, they are correlated
with others, and are likely to creep upon the breeder unawares, like the high
shoulders and thin flanks of cattle, or the inferior hams of pigs.

The offspring, therefore, is to be considered not so much the product of
his personal parents as of his parentage as a whole.

CHAPTER XIII

THE LAW OF ANCESTRAL HEREDITY i

The extent to which the offspring resembles the parent and the extent to
which he resembles more remote ancestors • Chance of resembling a partic-
ular individual ancestor • The individual a composite • The number " two "

The extent to which the offspring resembles the parent and
the extent to which he resembles more remote ancestors. We

have seen already that all individuals transmit and all individuals
possess more unit characters than can possibly be fully developed
and represented in visible form in their own personality ; that
is, every race is rich in characters, — so rich that not all of them
can be utilized in the make-up of any single individual.

We understand, then, that the offspring gets all his char-
acters from and through his immediate parents ; there is no
other source. We understand, too, that he gets not only those
that were specially developed in the personality of the parents,
but all others of the race as well, and that out of these the
personality of the offspring will be developed.

We understand, also, that the intensity of transmission is in
proportion to intensity of possession, and this for the most part
corresponds fairly well to the intensity of infusion of the racial
characters among the back ancestors ; that is to say, if a char-
acter is present in all the ancestors, it will almost certainly
appear in the offspring, while if it is present in but half of the
ancestry, the chances are even that it will be transmitted in the
latent form.

All things considered, therefore, we should not expect the off-
spring to be like the parent, unless the ancestry were so pure

1 For a fuller discussion of this subject, see " Principles of lireeding,"
PP- 525-534-

166

THE LAW OF ANCESTRAL HEREDITY 167

or the characters so few that all individuals are practically iden-
tical. This could not be in a race so rich in characters as man
or even the common domesticated animals, which differ so de-
cidedly in form, color, activity, and mental qualities, besides
many internal activities that cannot be readily detected.

We should however expect that the offspring would resemble
the immediate parents more closely than any other ancestors on
the score of relative intensities and nearness of blood, and this
expectation is fulfilled.

Galton and Pearson have given much study to this question,
and, arriving at results from independent standpoints and by
methods quite distinct, agree on the following formula as ex-
pressing what, on the average, is the degree of resemblance to
be expected between the offspring and the several generations
of ancestors backward : J, J, \, ^^g, ^■^, etc., to infinity.

It will be noticed that each fraction of this series is exactly
half of the preceding fraction ; also that if the series be carried
to infinity, the fractions would add up to i, thus accounting for
the total inheritance. This means, substantially, that in general
and on the average the offspring will resemble, to the extent of
half his personality, the two immediate parents, and of course
will divide that resemblance between them equally.^ To the ex-
tent of one fourth of his appearance he would resemble his
grandparents, the resemblance being distributed between the
four. One eighth of his visible characters may be credited to
the next generation (great-grandparents), one sixteenth to the
next, etc., indefinitely backward, thus accounting for all sorts of
remote resemblances or atavisms.

All this is not saying that every individual will thus accurately
divide his resemblances, but it is saying that for large numbers
the resemblances will be found to follow this plan, and wherever

1 This may seem wrong to the reader, because the offspring will resemble
more closely the better bred parent. That, however, as we shall see, is due to
the influence back of the parent. If the breeding were good enough, all the
ancestors would be alike.

1 68 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS

it has been tested on a large scale, as in the color of dogs, theory
is found to be true to the facts.

This series of fractions, therefore, may be taken as a good
statement of the law of ancestral heredity, or the probable re-
semblances between successive generations of the same family
line, whether the line be of pure or of mixed breeding. Of
course, as has been observed, if the line be extremely well
selected and closely bred, then all resemblances will be close,
and it may even look as if the resemblance to the immediate
parents is absolute ; but this is only because the near and the
remote ancestors are alike, and a little study of species in general
will convince the student that the natural proportions are as
stated, which series also represents the relative degree of rela-
tionship and intensities as can be represented by no other series
of fractions that could be arranged.

Chance of resembling a particular individual ancestor. This
series of fractions refers to generations, not to individual an-
cestors. Each must be divided by the number of individuals of
that generation in order to get the chance of the offspring
resembling any particular ancestor, say, the paternal grand-
mother. The following table gives in condensed form this series
of fractions, thus apportioned among the individual ancestors.

Effective Heritage contributed by Each Generation and

BY Each Separate Ancestor according to the

Law of Ancestral Heredity

Generation

Contribution of each

Number of an-

Contribution of each

backward

generation

cestors involved

ancestor

T^^

irV

T^,l

TSW

From this we see that an individual five generations back stands
but one chance in over a thousand of impressing a character

THE LAW OF ANCESTRAL HEREDITY 169

upon the offspring, and this chance grows rapidly less as we go
backward, never, however, becomirig zero ; so that it is possible
that resemblances to any ancestor, no matter how far removed,
may crop out in individual case^ from time to time, giving
strange but not unaccountable cases of reversion. These are ex-
tremely noticeable, first, from their variety ; and second, from the
fact that complete ignorance generally surrounds all ancestry
more than a generation or two back. What chance is there; for
example, for knowing much about the separate characters of
each of the thirty individuals involved in the first four genera-
tions only .? The next- generation backward would add thirty-two
more, showing how rapidly the transmission becomes compli-
cated, particularly when we remember that all the ancestry has
contributed to the individual.

The individual a composite. This makes it look as if the
individual were pretty well distributed among his ancestry from
his parents backward, and that is exactly the condition of matters.
The individual is a kind of mosaic, taking a portion (on the
average one half) of his reseniblances from his parents, others
from his grandparents, and still others from earlier ancestors,
even to the remote past.

At first thought this may seem impossible, but upon careful
research we find that racial characters are but loosely held to-
gether, ^ and it is only upon reflection that we realize the extent
to which combinations and recombinations take place and how
resemblances come and go in a long line of ancestry.

In this way an individual may seem in some particular to re-
semble, we will say, the paternal grandsire, whereas the actual
resemblance is not only to him but to perhaps a score or more
of similar ancestors still further back and long forgotten, but
whose blood lines combined with and intensifying those of

1 Shown by the fact that the " correlation " or bond that compels characters
to move together is very low, seldom as much as 50 per cent, so that almost
literally it is a free-for-all contest when matters of hereditary resemblances
are being determined. For a full discussion of Correlation, see " Principles of
Breeding," chap. xiii.

170 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS

the grandparent in this particular character bring it suddenly
into prominence.

The number " two.*' The student cannot fail to be struck
with the extent to which the number "two" figures in these
affairs. The product of mixed breeding, if unrestricted, follows
the binomial formula, giving definite mathematical proportions
to the combinations of characters. The normal distribution
when studying type follows the same formula, and the law of
ancestral heredity is made up of fractions derived from the
universal '* two."

This is not accidental, but perfectly natural. Inheritance
everywhere is the result of combinations of characters from two
parents ; not only that, but all growth is the result of cell divi-
sion, which means parting into two, so that the number '' two "
lies at the very base of all affairs involving transmission. It is
not strange, therefore, that the whole matter rests on a definite
mathematical basis, that the chance combinations of characters
can be predicted in the long run, or that the law of ancestral
resemblances should be the very remarkable series ^, \, |,
etc. It really could not be otherwise, with bisexual reproduc-
tion and with growth by cell division involving a splitting
of the chromosomes as the two characteristic attendants upon
heredity.

Summary. The offspring is a composite of all the blood of all his an-
cestors in proportions fairly definite. We cannot predict what the individual
may be, but of large numbers we can predict that their resemblances to ances-
tral traits will follow the series ^, |, ^, etc., in which the two immediate
parents divide between them the chances of impressing the offspring ; and
the other fractions are each divisible by the number of ancestors of the
corresponding generation, so that of large numbers of offspring a certain
definite number (25 per cent of all) will resemble the one parent with respect
to any given unit character, 25 per cent will resemble the other parent in
respect to the same character, and the remaining resemblances will be
distributed proportionately among the back ancestors. The number " two "
characterizes all reproduction, which therefore tends to conform to the
binomial theorem.

CHAPTER XIV
HEREDITY AND ENVIRONMENT

Mistaken estimate of environment • All the characters of the race, both good

and bad, are transmitted to the individual by his parentage • The function

of environment is to assist or to hinder in development • Environment

does not add unit characters • Modifications due to environment

Mistaken estimate of environment. There has been handed
down to us from our ancestors, by way of tradition, an altogether
false estimate of the role of environment in matters of evolu-
tion and of life. This false estimate arose naturally as the result
of the old-time assumption that all men were born alike, and
whether they turned out to be good or bad depended entirely
upon the influences by which they were surrounded.

Now no one can overestimate the power of good opportu-
nities or the danger of bad influences, but it is highly desirable
that we understand the facts as they actually are.

All the characters of the race, both good and bad, are trans-
mitted to the individual by his parentage. We have seen
already that every individual possesses all the characters of the
race, because he can transmit them. Many of them may be
undeveloped and invisible, and therefore we may not know that
he possesses them till we see his progeny under favorable con-
ditions for their development ; but we may be assured that they
are there in some degree of intensity, if they were known ever
to have existed in the ancestry. Whether they develop or not
will depend upon two factors : first, their inherent relative inten-
sity ; and second, the accident as to whether conditions of life
are favorable or unfavorable.

I have been careful to say "transmitted by his parentage,"
not " his parents." They came through his parents, it is true,

171

172 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS

for there was no other way, and in that sense they came by them ;
but the responsibihty may, as we now know, lie far back of the
immediate parent. Of all this we have abundant illustrations in
both the plant and animal world. In mixed breeding, under
Mendel's law, we have seen already how long a character may
linger and how easily it may outcrop even .generations later.
Reversions and the law of ancestral heredity teach us the same
truth, namely, that all races have an exceeding][y mixed ancestry,
partly desirable and partly undesirable, and t^at all races have
more characters than can be fiilly developed in any individual
or under any single set of conditions.

The dog, our most faithful friend, is, after all, a descendant
of the wild wolves of the forest, and he still, possesses some of
the ancient instinct to trail, to hunt, and to kill. In many cases,
under unfavorable conditions, this wild instinct gets the better of
him and he becomes a dangerous animal, fhe breeding of bull-
dogs for ferocity is attended with great danger, because this
particular trait is so closely in line with the old-time instincts
of the savage ancestors. The only protection of the horse is
flight, and we all know by experience that jsome individuals are
by nature so timid that under unfavorable. conditions they will
run away and are ever after unreliable.

Many individuals of our own race are , unfortunately "born
short " ; that is, with the better characters weak and those of
savagery relatively strong. Such men are almost certain to be
dangerous even under the best conditions. Unfortunately, too,
many who are better born have yet enough of the barbarous to
develop under unfavorable conditions a.rvd make them, too, dan-
gerous, when under good conditions tjiey would have been
harmless. It is highly desirable that, the best conditions pos-
sible be maintained, not only to prevent as many as may be
from going wrong, but also to help us Xq know and to sort out
the real degenerate, who is bound to go,^rong anyhow. Again,
and aside from all this, nobody knows exactly what his own
ancestry is, — just what traits of characjter arc waiting only for

HEREDITY AND ENVIRONMENT 173

favorable conditions for development, nor just how much he
can endure in the way of adverse circumstances without some
of the more undesirable characters of his family line under-
going development and getting the upper hand.

By any afid all counts, with our animals and plants and with
ourselves wfe are bound to maintain the most favorable environ-
ment possible, but it should be on the score of its influence
upon development, not under the mistaken idea that it can take
the place of heredity or in any other way compensate for the
failure of inheritance or mistakes of the ancestors.

The function of environment is to assist or to hinder in
development. If environment is then so mighty a factor, is not
the old tradition right after all ? No. The characters of the
family linfe are planted before birth by the particular ancestry,
whatever that may be. In all cases they are both good and bad.
In the bdst families and the purest blood, plant or animal, the
bad havd been, reduced to a relatively low intensity and a cor-
responding low probability of development. In the worst fami-
lies, unfortunately, the bad characters are the strongest ones,
likely to* develop even under the best conditions, because the
better faculties are in low intensity — mathematically low in
power.

Now^the character of the individual in his own personality
will depend not so much upon his total inheritance as upon the
particular characters that develop, and these will depend very
largely, though not entirely, upon the conditions with which he
is surrounded, especially in early life.

To illustrate : Take ten ears of corn that look exactly alike.
Plant them separately in rows, side by side, giving to each the
same 'soil and the same cultivation ; that is, surround them
with the same conditions and opportunities. Will they yield
alike ^ Most assuredly not. They may differ as much as 50
per cent, and possibly more. Why ? They were bred differ-
ently ; they inherited different powers of germination and of
vigor in obtaining and assimilating the plant food of the soil.

174 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS

Take a Jersey and a Shorthorn calf. Feed both all they will
eat. Will the Jersey equal the Shorthorn in growth and in flesh ?
No ; though he will be larger than another Jersey that has not
been so well fed. Feed a race horse liberally, and will he make
a draft horse .? No. Starve a draft horse, and will he make a
racer ? No. Everything will make what it was born to make,
or as near it as conditions permit. It is the function of the
environment to provide the opportunity and the materials for
development. If we desire the development of a particular
character, it is wise, after having secured it in the transmission,
to provide the means for its development. If, on the other
hand, we are conscious of the presence of an undesirable char-
acter in the nature of the animal or the plant, it is wise to with-
hold and prevent as far as lies within our power all influences
and conditions favorable to its development, and thereby make
its appearance as difficult and as unlikely as possible, hoping that
its ugly existence will remain forever dormant, understanding
well that the longer it remains undeveloped and unencouraged
the less likely is it to come to the surface.^

Environment does not add unit characters. Characters do
not arise out of their environment. They were there before or
they do not appear. Jersey cattle cannot be turned to red by
keeping them in a red barn, nor does the color of the colt
depend upon that of the working mate of the mother.

No man was ever made a thief by seeing others steal, unless
he had a little of the thief in him before by inheritance. We
ourselves are not yet so far removed from savagery but that
these fundamental barbarisms still beset us to some extent.
The savage steals and kills and tortures, and our race is not
yet free from some slight taint of these elemental characters.

* That is why it is the highest duty of every person not only to keep Aim-
selfszic, but also to keep his family line clean of undesirable blood lines which,
if introduced, will crop out to plague generations yet unborn. We owe all this
to the future. Unfortunately our own ancestors have not all lived up to their
duty in this regard, as most of us can testify by our own evil if not dangerous
impulses, mixed here and there with the best that is in us.

HEREDITY AND ENVIRONMENT 175

They do not belong with civiHzation, and civilization must elimi-
nate them as fast as possible, first, by the control of degenerates ;
and second, by making conditions so good as to reduce the
development of these uncivilized characters to a minimum.

This principle is well understood by farmers in dealing with
animals and crops. They know that a well-bred animal needs
good conditions, good feed, good shelter, and good advantages
generally. They know that good varieties need good soil and
favorable climate.

They know, too, that ill-bred animals will not respond to good
feed and care, and that poor varieties will not become good by
raising them on a good soil. The principle is universal, that
the nature of the race is fixed by its breeding. Its personality
may be helped or hindered, but cannot be created by its
environment.

Modifications due to environment. If two individuals could
be born alike, but grow to maturity in very different environ-
ments, the two would look very different. These differences
are the modifications due to environment or the conditions
and opportunities of life.

These modifications, we have seen, are due to the fact that
any given environment is favorable to the development of
certain characters and unfavorable to others. Thus a hot
country is favorable to the development of spiny growth and
harshness of leaf, but unfavorable to the growth of wool.

Two children are born with equal talent for painting. The
one lives with artists all his life, the other with commercial
people. Manifestly, the one will most likely be an artist and
the other will most likely learn trade, unless, as in rare cases,
the instinct is so strong as to be overpowering.

In one sense, therefore, all living matter is modified by and
according to the conditions of life, but in another sense it is
not, for no character can develop, however favorable the sur-
roundings, unless the faculty was first inherited ; that is to say,
the environment cannot supply lacking unit characters.

176 DOMESTICATEI7 ANIMALS AND PLANTS

Can modifications due tp environment be transmitted ? This
is the old and much debated question of inheritance of acquired
characters. It means in brief this : If a horse is spavined, will
the spavin be transmitted to the offspring ? If a man is a great
musical performer, will his child be a better musician than if the
parent never learned music ? Also, would this musician's younger
children inherit more of ^he musical faculty than would the older
children, born before the highest development of the parent's
powers ?

Will the calf of a cow that has made a phenomenal record
at the pail be itself a better cow than would the same calf from
the same cow if she had only moderate feed and care ? Will
cutting off the horns of cattle tend to produce, by and by, a
hornless race ?

This is the class of: questions involved at this point. The
matter is too intricate for treatment here, except to say that, in
the opinion of the author, the class of modifications here men-
tioned are not transmitted ; for example, we have been cutting
off the tails of lambs for many generations, but sheep are not
yet born without tails. Heredity is not so easily influenced as
all that, because the germ plasm (the sex cell) is not affected
by an operation like dehorning or cutting off the tail.

There is doubtless a class of modifications that may affect the
germ plasm and therefore be transmitted. I refer to all-pervad-
ing influences like temperature and alkalinity for lower organ-
isms, and fpr the higher animals and plants, to nutrition and to
definite chemical compounds, like poisons and toxins from con-
tagious and infectious diseases.

The student who desires to pursue this subject at length is
referred to " Principles of Breeding," pp. 221-345, ^nd collateral
literature.

Summary. What th,e offspring is at maturity depends, first of all, upon
the possibilities born into him ; and second, upon the opportunities for their
development afforded by the environment. Every individual inherits all
the faculties of the race, both good and bad, yet the fact remains that

HEREDITY AND ENVIRONMENT

177

some of these faculties, both good and bad, are so exceedingly weak as to be
practically wanting, and capable of development only in the most persistently
favorable environment. However favorable the environment, faculties will
not develop which were not inherited from the family line, any more than
would living in a white house make a white man out of a negro child.

References. 1. " Principles of Breeding."

2. " Essays on Heredity and The Germ Plasm." Separate volumes by
Weismann against the transmission of modification.

3. " An Examination of Weismannism and Post- Darwinian Questions."
Separate volumes by Romanes, favoring transmission of modifications.

CHAPTER XV
SYSTEMATIC IMPROVEMENT OF ANIMALS

Origin of the " pure bred " • Pedigree registers • Advanced registry • Unregis-
tered stock and scrubs • Systems of breeding • Source of sires • Herd im-
provement and breed improvement • Rational improvement • Choosing the
breed • Breed differences slight • Market classes and grades • Knowledge of
market requirements needful

Origin of the **pure bred.'* As the different species of ani-
mals were domesticated they were naturally kept by different
races of men and under a great variety of conditions. These
different people had different ideals and standards of selection,
and these, together with the various natural conditions of food
and climate, all helped to develop not one but many different
varieties of the race ; cattle, for example, and similarly for dogs,
horses, sheep, and all other domesticated species.

Naturally some of these were better than others, and their
special admirers would do what they could to prevent their mix-
ing with other and inferior strains, that is, to keep them pure.
In this way we have the so-called ''pure" breeds, numbering
in all more than a hundred more or less distinct strains, each
with its own type and standard of selection.^

England, for instance, was from early times a great cattle
country. In the central part, about Hertfordshire, there early
developed a heavy strain known as Longhorns, since modified
into the Herefords.

In the northeast another superior strain developed among
the excellent stockmen along the river Tees and in the county
of Durham, known first as Teeswater cattle, afterward as Dur-
hams, and finally as Shorthorns, to distinguish them from the

1 For a description of all the more common breeds of animals, see " Types
and Breeds of Farm Animals," by Professor Plumb.

178

SYSTEMATIC IMPROVEMENT OF ANIMALS 179

Longhorns of middle England, with which they came into com-
petition in the show ring. All this was a hundred years ago, but
the two strains or "breeds" are becoming more, rather than less,
distinct because each is being selected to its own type, thus still
further emphasizing its distinctive characters. No good stock-
man would now think of mixing them, so that everything keeps
them apart, while nothing brings them together. Under con-
ditions such as these the breeds become more distinct and their
characters more fixed year by year.

In a similar way southwest England developed the Devons ;
southccfSt England the Norfolk and Suffolk, now known as the
Red Polled ; and Scotland developed the Ayrshire, Galloway,
and Aberdeen Angus,

Horses, sheep, and swine, dogs, cats, and even pigeons, — in-
deed, all other domesticated animals, — have, in much the same
way, developed a variety of favorite strains which in time come to
be recognized as breeds, and the individuals of such distinct strains
are spoken of as '' pure breds."^ Thus arose the so-called pure
breeds, whose purity of blood is seen to be relative rather than
absolute, for all of them when traced far enough back '' run into
the woods," that is, merge into the common stock of the region
out of which they arose by methods here but briefly outlined.

Pedigree registers. It is manifest that the early breeders ex-
perienced much difficulty in determining purity of blood and in
avoiding the use of individuals of mixed or impure blood lines,
nor is it difficult to understand the necessity of some recognized
record as the ultimate authority. The number of animals that any
breeder might personally know to be pure would be exceedingly
limited. Again, the purer the blood the more the animal is worth,
other things equal ; and the temptation for unprincipled stockmen
to claim purity of blood for mixed animals is clearly extreme.

1 The word " thoroughbred " is sometimes erroneously used to designate
such animals. This term is the breed name of the English running horse and
should never be used as synonymous with pure bred. Thus we can have a
pure-bred cow, but a thoroughbred is a horse, and a running horse at that.

l8o DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS

For all these reasons the establishment of a record in which
should be recorded the pedigree of all animals claiming purity
of blood became an early necessity. It was done first with the
Thoroughbred at the time of the early English races, ^ and
followed rapidly afterward with cattle, swine, and even dogs.

In the pedigree register the animal's name is recorded, but
he is known and officially designated by his serial number,
assigned by the secretary of the association. The pedigree re-
cords also the date of birth, the name and number of the sire
and generally of the dam, together with the name of the owner
and sometimes some distinguishing mark that may be used for
identification. In general, the pedigree is a guarantee not only
of purity of blood but also, in a general way, of the family lines
to which the individual belongs. Identifying any particular
individual with the pedigree is a matter that rests solely with
the breeder, and for this reason the value of the pedigree of any
animal is largely dependent upon the reliability of the owner,
because he may falsify the report if he desires to do so.

1 With the decline of chivalry after the crusades came the just, or tilt, in
which first real and afterward nominal knights played at war. Later this de-
veloped into the fox or hare hunt, and later still into the horse race. From the
first the horses figured largely, especially such as were taken from the Arabs
at the" time of the crusades. As the tournament descended to the hunt the
relative importance of the horse increased, and as this in turn merged into the
race, the horse was of far more consequence than the rider. So a boy was
substituted for the owner, and thus the knight of the tournament became the
jockey of the horse race. When the hunt first became the race, the fox or the
hare was let loose in a circular course, well fenced, and then run down with
riders and dogs ; but later the fox and the fence were omitted on the assump-
tion that the horse that could first get around the track would best be able to
run down the fox, were the game a real hunt.

All this time the sport was confined to the gentry, whose horses were more
or less directly descended from Arabian or other stock brought to England
during or immediately after the crusades, which saw the practical end of the
age of chivalry. As the sport grew, some way had to be devised to keep out
the mob, and the rules early forbade the entry of any horse whose breeding
could not be traced along certain approved lines. This led naturally to written
and afterward to printed records of pedigrees, a custom that began naturally
in horse racing and which has been extended to all breeding as being the most
ready means of identifying blood lines and of establishing authentic records of
breeding.

SYSTEMATIC IMPROVEMENT OF ANIMALS i8l

Manifestly, when a breeder files a pedigree with the request
that it be published in the association record, the secretary is
in a position to know whether the sire and dam mentioned are
really owned by the breeder at the time mentioned, and to this
extent the association can vouch for the accuracy of the pedigree ;
but nobody but the breeder can testify that a particular individual
is the one covered by that pedigree. Here is where the honor of
the breeder is involved, and it is a great tribute to modern busi-
ness methods when we can truthfully say that it is rare indeed
for a breeder to falsify a breeding record or to substitute an
inferior animal for the one mentioned in the pedigree.^ Some
errors creep in through carelessness and inaccurate methods of
record keeping, no doubt, but these are being reduced rapidly,
and no class of men rank higher than breeders, whether judged
by standards of accuracy or those of business honor.

The following specimens will illustrate about what is covered
in the ordinary registered pedigree.

The first animal ever recorded was the running mare, A-la-
Grecque, the first listed in the General Studbook, published
1808, the record running as follows :

Bred by Mr. Piatt in 1763, got by Regulus — her dam by Allworthy —
granddam by the Bolton Starling — great-granddam, Daisy Maid, by Bloody
Buttocks — great-great-granddam, Bay Brocklesby by Old Pointer — great-
great-great-granddam, Brocklesby, by Greyhound, out of Brocklesby Betty.

Year Produce

1772 ch. c. Pontac by Marske ^

1773 f. by ditto (dam of Tencer)

1774 ch. c. by Chatsworth j^Sir L. Dundas

1775 f. by ditto
1777 ch. c. Arske by ditto

1 780 b. c. Balloon by Telemachus "1

1 78 1 b. f. Emma by ditto (dam of Applegarth) I . ,

1783 b. f. Maria by ditto (dam of Marianne) 1

1 784 ch. c. Templar by Magnet J

1 There are those who insist that no business men can be trusted, but the
business of the breeder can be carried on in no other way than upon honor,
and all associations exclude from their privileges any man who has defrauded
in pedigrees.

1 82 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS

By this we note that the pedigree runs entirely on the dam's
side, — indeed, no sires were at first recorded ; that her first off-
spring was a chestnut male^ and dropped in 1772 when she was
nine years of age, and that she raised a foal every year afterward
except 1776, 1778, 1779, and 1782, — nine in all. Other pedi-
grees recorded in this volume trace freely to Arabian stock.

The next pedigree register was Coates's Herdbook, pub-
lished in 1822 to record pedigrees of Shorthorn cattle or, as
they were called, improved Shorthorns, as bred at that time
largely by Mr. Thomas Bates and his associates in middle
England, but tracing to the Teeswater cattle of the county of
Durham.

This register recorded both bulls and cows, arranged alpha-
betically by name, but for the first time serial numbers were
assigned, though only to the males. Thus the first one recorded
(No. i) is Abelard, calved in 181 2; but further over in the
volume we find Comet (155), calved in 1804, and the famous
Hubback, calved in 1777. These early volumes are full of
attempts to verify the breeding of early but famous animals
then long dead, as were in many cases their owners as well.

So many Shorthorns have since been bred that the numbers
have run very high. Sixty-nine large volumes are filled with the
pedigrees of American Shorthorns only, the latest numbers
running above 273000.

A typical Shorthorn pedigree would now be recorded as
follows :

Palmer 270057.

Red, calved March 3, 1906. Bred by J. E. Gilbertson, Utica, Minn. ;
owned by Lars Somm, Rushford, Minn.; got by Old David 189406, out of
Aurora (Vol. LI 1 1 , p. 7 1 1 ) by 5th Favorite of Springbrook 1 4 1 6 1 7 — tracing
to imp. Daisy by Wild 1 1 1 34.

All this means that this record gives both the breeder and
the owner, and affirms that the sire of the calf was Old David

1 " c." stands for colt, which is male ; " f." for filly, which is female ; " ch."
stands for chestnut, " b." for bay, " bl." for black, etc.

SYSTEMATIC IMPROVEMENT OF ANIMALS 183

1 89406, and that the dam was Aurora, who is recorded in Vol.
LI 1 1 on page 711 ;^ that her sire was 5 th Favorite of Spring-
brook, whose recorded number is 14 16 17, and under which
we would find his full pedigree ; and further that this line of
breeding traces to the imported cow Daisy, whose sire was
Wild 1 1 134.

Pedigrees for cows run the same, except that they have no
numbers, but are arranged alphabetically by name under the
breeders, also alphabetically arranged. This deplorable system
makes it necessary to designate females by the number of the
volume and the page on which their pedigrees appear. Mani-
festly, names are useless for purposes of designation because
so many are duplicates.

The Hereford system is much better, as everything, male and
female alike, is recorded by number in serial order, — a plan
that is being more and more generally followed, whether the
animals recorded are horses, cattle, sheep, or swine.

Advanced registry. It is readily noted that the ordinary pedi-
gree is merely a guarantee against mixed blood lines ; that is,
that all the blood of the individual is of the specified breed and
no other. It does not, however, pretend to say whether or not
a particular individual is a good one. It may be the best of
its kind or the poorest, and nothing in the pedigree would make
the buyer the wiser. On this point he is dependent upon
examination alone.

The advanced registry, however, is a kind of second registra-
tion, based upon performance, and is thus a guarantee of quality.
Among horses it is based upon their track records,^ and among
dairy cows upon the amount of milk or butter fat made within
a given length of time, according to an officially recognized test.

A specimen of advanced registry taken from the Holstein-
Friesian books runs as follows :

1 In the Shorthorn books the dams still have no numbers and must be
designated in this awkward way.

2 See the Year-Book.

1 84 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS

No. 4044 Jolie Johanna Clothilde De Kol 72194

Jolie Johanna r_ .^ , ,, __ f Mutual Friend 3d's Paul 148 A. R.
/-I .U-1J T-. T^ 1 De Kol 2d's Mu- \ -r. -,. ■, ■, a i-, ^ t

Clothilde De Kol ,_. , . „ ^ De Kol 2d 412 A.R.O. In 10 yr.

. u ^ , tualPauli52A.R. I . ^ zr „ r

4044 A.R.O. In«j ^ [11 mo. 3 da. 21,261 lb. fat

3 yr. 7 mo. 23 da. Jolie Johanna Clothilde J Onyx Clothilde Pledge 23639

1 1,508 lb. fat [^52356 \ Jolie Onyx 43770

Owned by W. C. Hunt, Liverpool, N.Y. ; bred by George F. Carter,
Syracuse, N.Y. Calved April 1 1 , 1 90 1 . Official butter record : dropped calf
December 4, 1 904, at 3 yr. 7 mo. 23 da. of age ; commenced record January 1 7,
1905 ; closed record January 23 ; 7 days' production, 1 1 lb. 5 oz. butter fat;
milk, 345.5 lb. Attested by L. L. Devereaux, Cornell University, Agricul-
tural Experiment Station.

The need of this kind of information is evident. The breeder,
bent upon improvement, desires to buy and to keep the dest of
a breed, not the poorest or even the medium. A glance at the
table on page 156 will show that the mass will always be mediocre,
and that while much excellence springs from mediocrity, it is
relatively infrequent, so that if a man desires to breed excep-
tional animals, he will get a larger proportion of such if he
breeds from exceptional parents.

Here is where the problems of the breeder differ from those
of political science. A glance at the table cited will show that
a hereditary monarchy is certain to run, not occasionally but
frequently, into mediocrity for its ruler. Let stature stand a
moment for genius or statesmanship. Then a ruler represented
by 70.5 inches in the table is certainly well above the medium,
but his son may be anything from above 73.2 and better than
the father down to below 62.2, the minimum of the race.

Republics, on the other hand, elect their rulers, that is, select
them after birth and maturity, and have a chance to choose
individuals above the mediocre, with no reference either to
ancestry or descent, as the son is in nowise involved. This
is why republics can have better average rulers. Though they
are likely not to rise to the supreme height of some hereditary
monarchs, they will never sink to the depths of others, and
upon the whole they are safer.

SYSTEMATIC IMPROVEMENT OF ANIMALS 185

The breeder, on the other hand, is concerned with the offspring,
and he will stake his fortunes with the best bred ancestors, not
because all their descendants will be equally good, but because
the proportion will be higher.^

Unregistered stock and scrubs. Unregistered animals are of
two kinds : first, those that cannot be recorded because their

Fig. 27. Inferior feeder, ^4.75 per hundredweight {1910) ; usual price,
$2.75 per hundredweight

From " Beef Production," by Mumford

ancestry is exceedingly mixed, — known as scrubs ; and, second,
those that are really pure in their blood lines but that cannot be
recorded because the records are lost, or, for other reasons, their
particular ancestry is not fully known. These are called simply
unregistered.

1 A glance at the table in question will show that while tall people spring
both from tall and from mediocre parents, the greatest proportion is from the
tall parents ; thus 4 -=- 19 > 5 -^ 183 (see rows e and/ of the table).

1 86 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS

The first class is, on the average, decidedly inferior because
only partly improved, and though high-class individuals occasion-
ally occur, even they are next to worthless for breeding purposes,
because, under the law of ancestral heredity, the influences are
so diverse that regressions and reversions will be common, even
inevitable. The second class, on the other hand, may be virtu-
ally and even actually high-class, pure-bred animals, whose
records may have been lost by fire or other accident, or are
othen\dse untraceable. Such animals may be every whit as use-
ful for everyday purposes as are registered stock, but the
impossibility of knowing or stating their blood lines of course
destroys their sale value as breeders.

Now and always the great mass of our farm stock will be
unrecorded animals. The business of the improver is to raise
the quality of this stock to the nearest possible approach to the
best recorded blood. This is the best we can hope to do, for
there will always be a fezv best animals, and these are really
the only ones worth recording. It adds nothing to the value
of an inferior pure-blooded animal to record it, — indeed, it is
better that such animals be not recorded, — and one of the
first steps in practical improvement is to get rid of the pedi-
gree scrub, meaning by that, those animals of good breeding
which are themselves worthless.

We have, then, two great classes of animals : first, those whose
ancestry is known and recorded ; and second, those whose an-
cestry is not known. Manifestly, most of the best animals and
all of those valuable for securing additional improvement are
in the first class.

Systems of breeding. With these facts before us we are ready
to discuss the relative merits of different systems of breeding,
which may be briefly outlined as follows :

I. Mixed breeding, in which no attention whatever is paid
to ancestry. It has the merit of cheapness and the disadvantage
that no further improvement need be expected. If any syste-
matic attempts should be made toward selecting to a constant

SYSTEMATIC IMPROVEMENT OF ANIMALS 187

Standard, then it would be at once necessary to keep records,
and the animals so handled would be no longer mixed bred but
would be on their way to becoming a new strain of pure breds.
• 2. Pure breeding, in which only registered animals are used.
This system has the advantage of securing the best results, but

Choice feeding steer, $6.25 per hundredweight (1910) ; usual
price, $4.50 per hundredweight

From " Beef Production," by Mumford

it is relatively costly, especially with horses and cattle, but less
so with the smaller and cheaper animals.

3. Grading, in which the sire is pure bred, but the dam is
not. This system combines the advantages of both preceding
methods. It is but little more costly than the first, and is, for
practical purposes, almost as effective as the second.

4. Crossing, in which the sire is of one breed or set of blood
lines, as Shorthorn, and the dam of another, as Jersey. This
method combines the disadvantages of both the first and second
methods in that it is as costly as pure breeding and in the end

1 88 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS

not more effective than mixed breeding, which in truth it really
is, unless the object be the formation of a new breed, which is a
long and tedious task, but entirely feasible in theory, as we
have seen.

Some additional points may well be noted upon these four
systems of breeding. The first, or mixed breeding, has nothing
to commend it to the progressive farmer. It is and always will
be the method of the shortsighted stockman, who does not look
ahead, and who sees nothing beyond immediate results, but who
feels obliged and perhaps is obliged to be economical.

Pure breeding requires relatively large numbers, in order to
afford material for selection. With the larger animals this means
large capital, putting this method of breeding out of the reach
of the average stockman. With the smaller animals, especially
the prolific pigs and poultry, every man should breed only pure-
bred animals. Whether he goes to the trouble of getting them
recorded will depend upon whether he desires to sell to other
breeders or only to raise for the open market.

With the larger and more expensive animals, grading is the
form of improvement to be recommended for universal practice.
Here the farmer uses the females already on hand and buys only
the sire, which is the only recorded animal needed in this form
of improvement.

This sire is half parent to every young thing born, so the first
crop of young will be half bloods ; that is, they will have half
the advantage of pure breeding by the use of a single animal,
while to give the offspring the other half would require the
purchase not of a single animal but of as many as there are
females in the herd, one dam for each offspring.

Suppose, for example, a farmer has thirty common cows. How
will the expense run in the two methods of breeding.? If he is to
breed pure, he must sell these cows and with the proceeds buy
pedigreed animals. It will take at least three common cows to
buy one registered cow that is equally good as a performer, and
if the pedigree " runs in the purple," it will take many more.

SYSTEMATIC IMPROVEMENT OF ANIMALS 189

On this basis, however, the two plans would compare about
as follows :

By grading, the farmer would have a crop of thirty half-blood
calves. By pure breeding, his cows being reduced to one third,
the number he could have would be but ten ; that is to say, he
has more " blood " and therefore more improvement in his thirty
half bloods than in his ten full bloods, as well as more animals

Fig. 29. Choice (butcher) cow, $6.40 per hundredweight
Mumford, in Bulletin 78, Experiment Station, University of Illinois

to stock his farm and to afford material for selection. On the
sire's side the expense has been the same.

As between grading and mixed or unimproved breeding, the
advantage is clearly with the former. The females are the same
in both cases. The cost of feed for the sire is the same, and
the only difference is in his original cost. A sire suitable for
grading purposes can be had for a hundred dollars, which would
be but $3.33 extra for each calf, to entirely pay for the bull
with the first crop of calves. But he will raise successive crops,

190

DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS

and the scrub costs something, so that the increased cost of
giving a calf half the advantage of pure breeding cannot be over
a dollar apiece in a herd of this size. Moreover, this dollar is
not on the calf but rather on the mature animal.^

Any way it is estimated, the great fact is, that by the system
of grading, a single parent will give to every one of the young of
the herd half the advantage of pnre breeding in the first genera-
tion. When, however, these half bloods reach breeding age,
their offspring from a pure-bred sire will be not half bloods but
three-quarter bloods, and their offspring will be seven eighths,
and so on indefinitely, according to the following table :

Rate of Improvement by the System of Grading

Generation

Sire

Dam

Offspring

Per cent
improvement

Pure

Scrub

\ blood

50-

Pure

\ blood

1 blood

75-

Pure

f blood

\ blood

87.5

Pure

1 blood

If blood

9375

Pure

II blood

l\ blood

96.875

By this we see that after five generations of grading the
offspring have attained thirty-one thirty-seconds, or nearly
97 per cent, of the improvement that is possible by the use
of pure blood, and all by the use of a single animal only at
any given time. By this we see, too, that the sire alone can
in time accomplish practically as much improvement as sire
and dam could both accomplish at once, and all at an expense
vastly less.

Too much cannot be said in favor of improvement by grad-
ing. It is safe, cheap, and sure, and, moreover, it does not dis-
turb the affairs of the farmer. It means only the initial cost of
a well-bred sire, and after that the improvement of the herd will
take care of itself ; whereas, with scrub parents on both sides, no

1 Of course, if the herd is being used for dairy purposes, only half the calves
would be utilized, which would double the cost.

SYSTEMATIC IMPROVEMENT OF ANIMALS 191

improvement is possible except by an outlay of labor and expense
beyond that even of pure breeding, and at a cost of time far
beyond that of grading.

It is difficult to realize why farmers do not more generally
avail themselves of this perfectly rational and exceedingly eco-
nomical means of improvement, and see in their yards at once
crops of uniform young instead of the motley lot that disgrace

Fig. 30. Medium (butcher) cow, $4.75 per hundredweight
After Mumford

most of our barnyards. Their failure to do this is due to noth-
ing but their failure to look ahead, to figure out the final out-
come, and to look facts squarely in the face.

The young people who read these pages can do a lasting
service by using their influence in every way possible to hasten
the use of better sires. All old countries have learned the lesson
long ago. We need to learn it at once. Let the young people
start it and begin now.

192 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS

Source of sires. Suitable sires can be had of any of the rep-
utable breeders that advertise in our best journals, and at fair
prices. They will cost more than they are worth for veal, of
course, but it should be remembered that the buyer is paying
not so much for the animal as for the long line of breeding that
he represents. Consult again the law of ancestral heredity in
Chapter XII and understand fully why it is that a well-bred

Fig. 31. Common rough (butcher) steer, $5.80 per hundredweight (1910)
usual price, $4.25 per hundredweight

After Mumford

male, if only a few weeks old, is worth many times his ordinary
market value and infinitely more than any scrub, no matter what
his size, color, or other quality, which, like beauty, is in his case
only " skin deep,"

Herd improvement and breed improvement. Farmers are far
more apt to practice crossing than grading, though it is vastly
more expensive, and, as commonly practiced, leads to nothing, for

SYSTEMATIC IMPROVEMENT OF ANIMALS 193

reasons well understood by the student. I attribute this failure
to our universal desire to experiment in something striking.

If crossing has any value, it is not to improve the herd of a
farmer, but to afford material for improving the breed as a whole,
and even this is a long, tedious, and expensive undertaking
because of the operation of Mendel's law. Farmers who have
tried it will say that crossing produces some good animals, but
they are worthless as breeders. This is because of the principle
just mentioned and the erratic behavior of characters dominant
and recessive, as explained in Chapter XI.

The practical farrner should have clearly in mind what he
desires to do. If he very much wants to improve the breed as
a whole, then well and good. All breeds need it, but he may
as well understand that he has undertaken a Herculean task
that will take much time and no little money.

Most men are rightly after herd improvenie^tt merely ; that
is, to bring into their own herds the most they can afford of
the best that has already been accomplished in improvement.
Now the least that such a man can afford to do is to buy a sire
of the desired breed and begin at once to improve his own herd.
Then later he can improve the breed, if he is able.

Rational improvement. The rational procedure for the man
who would improve his live stock is to secure a well-bred young
male of the breed he prefers and " grade up," beginning with
the females he has on hand, or such other common stock as can
be bought on reasonable terms. Let him then raise several
generations of grades, and later, if inclination offer and money
permit, he can put in a few pure-bred females with his high
grades and begin the production of a pure-bred herd ; or he
may go on with high grades indefinitely, well knowing that/<?r
market purposes the high grade is as good as the full blood.

Starting in this way he will have several substantial advan-
tages, which may be enumerated as follows : ( i ) he will start
cheaply ; (2) he will produce relatively large numbers, making
rigid selection possible ; (3) he will discover the special breed

194 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS

characters quickly, as they will stand boldly out at once in the
grade stuff; (4) he will gain much valuable experience with
the breed in case he afterward desires to breed it pure.

Choosing the breed. No question is more common than this :
What is the best breed ? The only answer is that there is no
best breed. Of course, one should not choose Percheron horses

Fig. 32. Prime steer, $8.70 per hundredweight (1910)
After Mumford

for carriage purposes nor Jersey cattle for beef. Thus, in a
general way, the farmer should be informed about the breeds
before he begins. This is not the time nor the place to dis-
cuss this question at length, but he can get this information
from such books as Professor Plumb's,^ and he cannot afford
to decide so important a question as choosing a breed without
giving some time to its study, because it is expensive both in
time and money to make a change.

1 " Types and Breeds of Farm Animals."

SYSTEMATIC IMPROVEMENT OF ANIMALS 195

Above all, he should not choose it suddenly or impulsively,
as do some, when overimpressed with a particularly striking dis-
play at the fair. The matter of the breed should be seriously
studied, for once chosen it should not, under any ordinary cir-
cumstances, be changed for another. To do that is to so mix
the breeds together as to make a jumble which is next to
worthless for practical purposes, giving rise as it does to all
sorts of troublesome and unexpected reversions, for Mendel's
law is always operative in such cases.

Breed differences slight. As between the different breeds
that are bred for the same purpose, the practical differences
are slight and well within the personal factor of choice. For
example, the four great beef breeds — Shorthorn, Hereford,
Angus, and Galloway — were developed in as many different
localities, and all in the hands of excellent stockmen. As
with adherence to a political party or to a particular religious
faith, an individual generally prefers the one with which he
was brought up.

Many a man says, " I will not have horns." Then his choice
is limited to Galloway and Angus. But he says, '' I don't like
black cattle." Very well ; then he will have to get the Polled
Durham. Then he may say, '' I don't like roans." Then noth-
ing is left for him but to make a breed of his own, with the
probability that he will be dead and forgotten long before the
feat is accomplished, for we cannot quickly build a breed to
specification, as we can a house.

After the breed is chosen the breeder should become familiar
with its '' points " and also with the market requirements of the
animals he proposes to produce.

To facilitate this study by the young I have added an Appen-
dix, which gives sample scales of points both for pure-bred and
for market animals. It is impossible to cover all breeds in a
book of this size, but enough is given to afford exercise in stock
judging, which is one of the most valuable accomplishments of
the farmer.

196

DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS

It will be seen upon careful study that some of these points
are based upon utility, while others aim at mere looks, often
covering points that, from the standpoint of utility, are trifling.
Now we keep cows, for example, for milk and butter, and those
that can make the most for a given amount of feed are the
best cows, quite independent of the length of the tail or the
color of the tongue. Meat animals generally are valuable in

Fig. 33. Prime baby beef, $8.00 per hundredweight (1910)
After Mumford

proportion to the amount and quality of the meat they can
make, and horses for their service at labor or upon the road.
In pure breeding a great variety of minor matters are bound
to enter in, and this fact constitutes one of its difficulties, but
practical improvement of the mass of farm animals should
proceed upon utility standards.

Market classes and grades. For animals that are shipped
largely to the open market, like beef cattle, sheep, pigs, and

SYSTEMATIC IMPROVEMENT OF ANIMALS 197

even horses, definite classes and grades ^ have long since been
established. There are now no less than seven classes and
forty-eight grades of market cattle, eight classes and twenty-
seven grades of swine, eleven classes and twenty-one subclasses
of horses, and seven classes and forty grades of sheep, a few
of which are shown in illustrations accompanying this chapter
(Figs. 27-33). The value of these different grades varies of
course at different times, but relatively the upper grades are
out of all proportion with the lower. A careful study of these
relative values will convince the student of what can be done
by breeding.

Knowledge of market requirements needful. It is important
that the stockman have pretty definite knowledge of market
requirements, because they are the standard by which his ani-
mals must be sold and by which he will be paid. Want of this
information is the cause of thousands of " unclassed " 2 animals
upon the market. It is hardly necessary to remark that such
animals make the owners little or no money. If, on the other
hand, the owner knows in advance what the market will demand,
he can shape his ideals and selections accordingly and thereby
produce what the buyer really wants. Here is where accurate
knowledge and intelligence are necessary to the best success
in the live-stock business.

Exercise. Make a careful study of Chapter XVII, Part II, and get
practice in stock judging, as outlined in the Appendix.

Reference. The Breeders' Gazette, which ought to be regularly taken
by the school.

1 For market classes and grades of cattle see Bulletin y8, Experiment
Station, University of Illinois; for those of swine, see Bulletin gy ; for horses,
see Bulletin 122; and for sheep, Bulletin i2g. Professor Mumford, head of
the department of Animal Husbandry, began this important series of publica-
tions with the bulletin on cattle, which was followed by the others mentioned,
prepared respectively by his associates. Professor Dietrich, Mr. Obrecht, and
Mr. Coffey. In all cases the material was prepared in the stockyards, then
submitted to the best experts, and may be considered as authentic.

2 An unclassed animal is one that does not fall into any of the recognized
desirable classes. Such animals make their way into the lower grades, and,
as the supply always exceeds the demand, go for an extremely low price.

CHAPTER XVI
SYSTEMATIC IMPROVEMENT OF PLANTS

Improvement by selection • Crossing to produce new varieties • Application

of Mendel's law in crossing • Separation of the desired character • Behavior

of the recessive • Behavior of the dominant • When more than two characters

are involved • Systems of planting • Records

The whole question of practical methods of plant improve-
ment rests on an entirely different basis than that of animals.
The evolutionary principles involved are identical, but the eco-
nomic conditions are different, indeed almost opposite.

Animals are relatively few in number and costly both in breed-
ing and in maintenance. Plants, on the other hand, are cheap,
and the numbers may easily run into the thousands, all of which
warrants methods in plant improvement that would be entirely
impracticable with animals.

Improvement by selection. Plants, like animals, are subject
to improvement by the ordinary methods of selection ; indeed,
much improvement is effected in that way. Farmers keep up
the quality of corn by selecting for seed the occasional superior
ear. The best wheat is chosen for seed and carefully screened
of inferior kernels. In this general way we are constantly
practicing selection.

A new method of increasing yield of corn consists in planting
selected ears, each in separate rows, carefully harvesting each
row separately. Though the ears may have looked identical, the
crop will vary greatly. That from some ears will be nearly uniform
as to size and character of ear, while that from others will be
exceedingly uneven, with many nubbins and inferior ears. The
yield, too, will vary greatly, often running more than two to one
in favor of certain ears, though they bore no visible indication

198

SYSTEMATIC IMPROVEMENT OF PLANTS 199

of inherently superior powers. This experiment is so easily
repeated that it is recommended for the student, and further
data are hardly necessary in the text (see table, p. 204).

This method is akin to that employed for the increase of sugar
in the sugar beet. When the Germans commenced the improve-
ment of this crop, the sugar content was low, running from 4 to
6 per cent, while now whole fields run 1 5 per cent and occasional
single beets are found as high as 25 per cent. This improve-
ment has been effected in the following way.

Many promising beets are analyzed for sugar content and
only the highest are selected for planting. The same process
is repeated for two or three generations, the best individuals
always being selected as " mother beets." The seed from the
last selection is '' multiplied " in the open field by planting with-
out selection, simply to secure commercial quantities. Thus
the commercial seed, while not immediately descended from
selected beets, is but one or two generations removed from a
highly selected parentage.

Crossing to produce new varieties. By the methods above
mentioned any strain or variety may be greatly improved, but
by the method of crossing we may bring together absolutely new
combinations of characters and thereby produce new varieties,
some of which are certain to be more useful than the old.

The reasons which practically rule out crossing as a means
of improvement in animals, except in rarest cases, do not apply
with much force to plants, because we can produce them in such
enormous numbers and they are relatively so cheap that we can
afford to throw away the most of them for the sake of getting
the few or even the one that is useful.

Application of MendePs law in crossing. The confusing ele-
ment in crossing is the behavior of dominant and recessive
characters when suddenly brought together in new combinations.
Reference to the chapter on Mendel's law will refresh the point
that characters combine in definite proportions, but that some
are much more apparent than others which are easily obscured,

200 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS

and which therefore may go on hidden for a time, only to sud-
denly appear when the overshadowing dominant, for any reason,
is absent.

Separation of the desired character. The separation of the
desired character from its entanglements with others is some-
times easily effected, but more often with great difficulty, espe-
cially when dominant undesirable characters are involved. As
an example of easy separation take the following theoretical
case : Suppose we cross the colors black and white. Under
Mendel's law we shall have offspring of the cross as follows :
U^-^- 2 bw -^ w^, in which b'^ is pure black, w^ pure white, and
2 bw is mixed, black and white. In this particular case, there-
fore, we shall find the offspring of three distinct colors, all of
which are easily separable, one from the other.

In the vast majority of cases, however, the characters do not
blend in this way, so that the middle term does not stand out
distinctly by itself. One of the characters generally overshadows,
that is to say, is dominant over, the other, making it difficult, if
not impossible, to separate. by inspection the members of the
middle term from the pure dominants ; that is, to determine
from a mixed -population of offspring, arising from a crossed
parentage, which ones are pure dominants and which are
mixed, dominant, and recessive.

Behavior of the recessive. It will be remembered that reces-
sive characters appear unassociated with the dominant in
one fourth of all crossbred individuals, after the formula
Z>2 -I- 2 Dr + r^, in which D stands for dominant and r for
recessive. For this reason it is comparatively easy to proceed
when the character desired is recessive, because these individ-
uals that seem to be recessive are really what they seem, pure
recessive, and will breed pure.

Behavior of the dominant. It is not so easy, however, with
the dominant, when that happens to be the character in whose
improvement we are interested. Because it is dominant it will
appear not in one fourth but in three fourths of the Offspring ;

SYSTEMATIC IMPROVEMENT OF PLANTS 20 1

that is, we are unable to discriminate between the pure D^ and
the 2 Dr with its unnoticeable recessive, r. How, now, shall
these be separated ?

It is a long and difficult process. The only procedure is to
plant the seeds, separately if possible. Those that are pure
dominants will of course produce only dominants, while those
that are mixed will produce both kinds ; that is, among these
no recessive will appear. In self-fertilizing species we can
quickly separate the pure dominant strains, but when it is neces-
sary to resort to cross fertilization, either natural or artificial, it
is evident that the work is still more difficult. Under such circum-
stances the only way is to proceed at random until a strain
appears that produces no recessives, when it may be confidently
assumed that the parents were both pure dominants and that
the separation has been effected.

When more than two characters are involved. It is sufficiently
difficult to separate two characters, one of which is dominant.
Manifestly, it is still more difficult to effect separations when
three or more characters are involved, especially if we are con-
cerned with all of them.

Of course, in practical improvement we neglect all characters
that do not concern us, whether they are dominant or recessive ;
but, on the other hand, it is seldom that we are concerned with
so simple a problem as the separation of a single character from
its recessive or dominant associations. When our problem is
to separate two or three such characters from their hereditary
entanglements, the job becomes akin to hunting for the tradi-
tional " needle in a haystack," because the combinations are
exceedingly complicated ; for we remember that the individuals
which are recessive as to one character may be dominant or
mixed as to others. ^ The only way, however, is to run it down

1 This is why, if Jerseys and Holstein-Friesians should be crossed, some of
the offspring would be rich in certain Jersey characters and others in other
characters, either Jersey or Holstein-Friesian ; but under the law of chance not
once in a million times, or more perhaps, would a single animal be pure Jersey
with reference to all the Jersey characters. Besides this, it is more than likely

202 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS

patiently by dealing with relatively large numbers, always
remembering that recessives when evident are always pure, at
least as far as their own dominants are concerned.

Systems of planting. In order to make safe and certain
progress in improvement of plants, definite systems of planting
must be observed. Two systems are in vogue, — the plot system
and the row system. Each has its advocates, and each has its
advantages for certain purposes.

The plot system is the older. In this system the seeds of a
given selection are planted together in a small plot of ground,
which is labeled and numbered. In the row system each selec-
tion is planted in a separate row, which is also labeled and
numbered.

Whichever system is adopted, adequate methods of number-
ing and recording not only the ancestry of the planting but also
the progeny or crop must be devised and rigidly adhered to ;
indeed, much of the success of improvement in plants, which
necessarily run into large numbers, is dependent upon the skill
and faithfulness of the record keeper.

Records. The exact form of the record will of course depend
upon the particular plants and characters involved, and to some
extent upon the system of planting adopted, whether in plots
or in rows. For simple operations the student can devise his
own system of records, and for more complicated cases he is
referred to " Principles of Breeding," pp. 644-650, where com-
plete illustrations are given of the method of record keeping in
the wheat-breeding experiments at Minnesota, where the plot
system is used, and in the corn-breeding work at Illinois, where
the row system is in use.

The general principle is that every plot or row be designated
by number, that every seed selection have also its serial number,
and that full descriptions be recorded of all plantings. A little

that some of the Jersey and some of the Holstein-Friesian characters would
blend, making anything like a pure Jersey or Holstein-Friesian forever after-
ward impossible.

SYSTEMATIC IMPROVEMENT OF PLANTS 203

study will enable us to put much meaning into these numbers.
For example, suppose 20 ears of corn are to be planted. For
the first year of an experiment, instead of numbering them from
I to 20 it is better to number them from loi to 120, next year
from 201 to 220, and so on, so that the figure in the hundreds'
place denotes the number of generations of improvement. Thus,
if an ear should have the number 614, we know at once that it
represents the sixth generation of improvement. In general, the
following will be sufficient for the record of simple breeding
operations : (i) number of seed ; (2) description ; (3) number of
plot or row in which it is planted ; (4) number of parent stock, —
one number if fertilization is left open as in corn or closed as in
wheat, but if crossed by hand, then two numbers will be needed,
one for the male and one for the female parent.

With this information and these few general directions the
student is amply able to begin experiments in plant improve-
ment, and it is the earnest hope of the author that young people
may quite generally appreciate the opportunity for improvement
in seed and plant and flower, that still stands waiting the hand
of the -breeder. It is a fascinating field into which the student
is advised, even urged, to enter, — cautiously at first, taking one
or two simple things, remembering always that such work runs
rapidly into numbers ; then, as experience is gained, he may
range farther afield.

It is no stretch of the imagination nor is it a chimerical dream
to say that the students of our better schools, aided by their
teachers, can, if they will, do more to further improve many of
our cultivated plants than can the farmers themselves. It is well
within their powers. They have the time and can acquire the
skill, — things which are difficult to secure to the man that is
busy in active commercial life.

As an example of what can be done in the improvement of a
single character, I introduce the following table, which exhibits
the results of ten years of selection for high and low oil of corn
carried on by Dr. C. G. Hopkins of the University of Illinois.

204

DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS

In these experiments the planting was always made from the
ears that contained the highest and lowest obtainable proportions
of oil respectively. The selection may be roughly based on the
size of the germ, the largest germs having the most oil.

Ten Generations of Breeding Corn for Increase and
Decrease of Oil

High-oil plot,

Low-oil plot,

Difference

Year

average per cent oil

between

In seed

In crop

In seed

In crop

crops,

planted

harvested

planted

harvested

1896

4.70

.00

1897

5-39

473

4-03

4.06

.67 •

1898

5.20

5-15

3-65

3-99

1. 16

1899

6.15

5-64

3-47

3.82

1.82

1900

6.30

6.12

3-33

3-57

2-55

I9OI

6.77

6.09

2-93

3-43

2.66

1902

6-95

6.41

3.00

3.02

3-39

1903

673

6.50

2.62

2.97

3-53

1904

7.16

6.97

2.80

2.89

4.08

1905

7.88

7.29

2.67

2.58

4.71

1906

7.86

l-Zl

2.20

2.66

4.71

Exercises. Study and report upon any plant-breeding operations of the
neighborhood, especially with reference to the following points : what im-
provements are sought ; how seeds are selected, and on what points selection
is based ; how stored for the winter ; how planted, and what records are kept.

Plant in separate rows ten of the best ears of corn obtainable, describe
and number each ear, and give the same number to the row in which it is
planted. Then make a careful study of the crop, both as to yield and uni-
formity, using the statistical methods for determining variability.

Plant separately from the tips, the middle, and the butts of the same ears
of corn. Next year select a set in the same way from the respective crops,
and continue the experiment for a series of years in order to get the cumu-
lative effect of the late small kernels at the tip as compared with the early
and large kernels of the base. Do not look for too much difference the
first year.

Bring to the school garden any field crop or garden plant in which there
is general interest, and begin work, looking to its improvement.

PART II

THE ORIGIN OF DOMESTICATED RACES

Part II deals with the material out of which domesticated
species and varieties have been made. It aims to sketch briefly,
as far as it is known, the history of domestication and to indicate
^s well as may be done at the present time the specific wild race
to which each domesticated form is supposed to trace when run
back to its wild progenitors. The limitations of space forbid
anything more than the briefest outline, but to further assist the
student the text is supplied with references to fuller sources of
information.

The attempt to trace the history of domesticated animals and
plants back to their primitive forms is beset with many difficulties.
First of all, the domesticated races have been substantially altered
during their long removal from the wild, subject primarily to
man's selection ; and again, in the centuries that have elapsed
since domestication, many a wild race has become extinct, and
because of this we may often be deceived as to the exact par-
entage and be inclined to credit it to some near relative that
has persisted ; still again, wild races themselves change without
man's interference, and for all these reasons this attempt to
assign definite sources of our domesticated races must be
regarded as more or less approximate in its conclusions.

The student will be struck with the fact that most of our
animals and plants trace to Old- World forms. This is not
necessarily because the New World was less prolific in valuable
material, but rather because civilization, as we know it at least,
commenced in Asia and worked westward. In this way much
valuable material indigenous to the American continent was

205

2o6 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS

neglected for no other reason than this, namely, that too good
a start was already made with Old-World material ; and only
where something distinctly better was discovered here, as corn
and the turkey, were American races utilized, excepting only
when Old- World forms failed, as they did with the grape and
the gooseberry.

The material of this part may be used in three ways : as text, to
follow appropriate chapters in Part I as indicated ; as reference
matter, to be taken in connection with Part I ; or as independent
matter.

CHAPTER XVII
ORIGIN OF DOMESTICATED ANIMALS

Domesticated mammals • The dog • The horse • The ass • The ox • The sheep •

The goat • The pig • The cat • Domesticated birds • The hen • The goose • The

duck • The turkey • The peacock • The swan • The guinea fowl • Additional

races and semidomestication • Unwelcome domestication

As the subject matter of Part II constitutes an application of
the principles discussed in the early chapters, we are ready at
once to proceed, without special introduction, to the detailed study
of the origin of special races of domesticated animals.

Domesticated Mammals

The dog (Canis familiaris). Of all the wild animals that have
been brought into the service of man, some form of dog was
undoubtedly the first, for
reasons brought out in the
chapter. How Animals came
to be Domesticated. His
exact origin is of course un-
known, but he has numerous
wild relatives in all parts of
the world, not only within
historic times but even to
the present day. The near-
est of these are the wolf and
the jackal in their various
forms, both of which are said to breed freely with the domes-
tic dog upon opportunity, and both of which, more especially
the wolf, have been frequently domesticated. The Indian, for
example, kept numerous ''dogs," mostly developed from the

207

Fig. 34. The collie, one of the finest
domesticated types

2o8 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS

coyote of the prairie and often with a dash of blood of the
timber wolf to give energy and ferocity (see Fig. 3).

A very doglike wild animal is the fox, which, however,
is not commonly regarded as one of the immediate progeni-
tors of the common dog on account of structural differences
in the skull and the more significant fact that the pupil of

Fig. 35. The dingo, or wild dog of Australia ; nearer the domestic dog than
any other existing wild species

his eye is elliptical, whereas it is round in the wolf, the jackal,
and the dog.

These slight structural differences, however, are counting for
less than formerly in tracing relationships, and the fact that cer-
tain South American wolves are very foxlike, as are some of our
dogs, leads us to be careful in denying the fox even remote
connection with our domesticated races.

ORIGIN OF DOMESTICATED ANIMALS 209

The wild animal nearest to the domestic dog seems to be the
dingo of Australia. It might be called the wild dog of that
island. Whether from life in a restricted area and with a simple
fauna it has had less opportunity to exercise and develop its
wolfish instincts than has its cousin of the continents, or whether
the original stock was essentially more doglike, we do not know.
We only know that the dingo is more like a dog than is any
other wild animal of the present time, and that he is very like
certain forms of the domestic species.

We know, too, that the line between the dog and the wolf is
not distinctly drawn ; that is to say, there is more difference
between different breeds of the domestic dog than there is be-
tween certain breeds and the wolf of the wilds. On this point
compare the common dogs as we know them with the Siberian
wolfhound and with the timber wolf.

They all possess a common instinct to hunt and a common
ability to trail by the scent. ^ True, a few breeds, like the poodle
and the dachshund, have lost the hunting instinct, having been
developed as pets, but in others it has been well preserved. The
bulldog is more savage and more courageous than any wolf ever
known. The mastiff does not hunt, but he watches, which is
essentially the same thing. The St. Bernard, which is a gentle
dog, displays his native instinct in hunting men for rescue. ^

The bloodhound has a keener scent and greater ability to
follow a trail than has any wolf, but he has lost the savage part
of the hunting instinct ; for, contrary to popular belief, he is
quite satisfied to sniff his quarry at the end of the trail. ^

The greyhound and the Russian wolfhound have lost their
ability to trail, but preserve their old hunting instinct, so, while
obliged to depend upon sight to discover the quarry, they are

1 Curiously enough, the " bark " which is characteristic of the domestic
dog and largely absent in the wild is readily acquired upon domestication, but
abandoned by the same individuals upon assuming the feral state.

2 Read the story of " Barry " of St. Bernard.

8 The term" bloodhound" means blooded ox highly bred. It has no reference to
ferocity, for the bloodhound is the gentlest of all dogs, not excepting the poodle.

2IO DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS

still most excellent hunters. The hunting hound still retains the
original instinct to hunt in packs like the wolf, an instinct which,
in the collie, has been developed into herding.^

These habits are not far from those of the wolf of the woods.
This skillful hunter does not charge his prey, but he hunts
systematically, singly, or in packs. A man being stalked by

Fig. 36. Prize-winning great Danes, the largest of all dogs. Winderbourne
kennels, Washington, D.C.

wolves would be long unaware of his peril. He might see a
single wolf running off to the side at a considerable distance,
apparently disappearing in the bushes. Presently he might see
another, perhaps following, perhaps in another quarter. If new
to the woods, he might think that wolves were plenty but all
great cowards, while if he knew their habits in hunting, he would

1 Read " Hob, Son of Battle," in this connection.

ORIGIN OF DOMESTICATED ANIMALS 211

know that the whple pack was upon his trail, not following
straight but circling round him in a gradually narrowing and
ultimately fatal spiral ; for, gaining confidence with exertion and
whetted hunger, the pack will ultimately make the charge at a
favorable moment after the quarry is at bay and shows the first
evidence of defenselessness. This is the natural method of the
shrewdest and most cowardly hunter the forest of nature ever
produced, and it is perfectly natural that such an animal should
have been not once but many times domesticated. Thus came
the dog to dwell among us.

The horse (Equus cahallus). Unlike the dog, the horse has no
near relative in the wild ; that is to say, there is no existing wild
species that, by any stretch of the imagination, could be regarded
as the direct progenitor of the modern horse, or from which the
horse could by any possibility be developed.^ If all the dogs of
the world should disappear, they could be reproduced from the
wild ; but if the domestic horse should disappear, he could not be
restored from any other existing species. . .

While the immediate progenitor of the horse is, and likely
has been for a long time, extinct, yet two significant facts re-
main. The first is, that he was almost certainly developed from
some primitive stock in or near the semiarid plains of Central
Asia, having wolves for his nearest neighbors and principal
enemies. The other fact is equally significant ; namely, that
while the immediate progenitor is lost, we really know more of
the ancestry and evolution of the horse than of any other animal
domesticated or wild, living or extinct.^

1 Objection might be made to this statement on account of the Tarpan, or
so-called wild horse, which has been known on the steppes of Tartary and
eastward to Central Asia certainly since the time of Pallas (1760), though it is
now confined to the more remote regions of the interior. These animals are
true horses ; and if they are aboriginal stock, they are to be regarded as the
real progenitor of our domesticated race. It is more than likely, however, that
they are feral rather than truly wild.

2 For a more extended account of the origin of the horse and his evolution
upward, see " Principles of Breeding," pp. 298-305.

Fk;. 37. Prehistoric five-toed horse restored, and compared in size with the
head of the modern horse. — After Osborn

212

ORIGIN OF DOMESTICATED ANIMALS 213

The best of evidence exists to show that the modern horse
has developed from a diminutive five-toed ancestor not much
larger than a jack rabbit. Fig. ^y shows this animal restored,
and compared in size with the head of the common horse. The
story is too long to be recited here, but should be read in col-
lateral literature. Space permits us to note only the significant
fact that actual relics have been found in western North America,
and are still in existence, showing the entire evolution of the
horse from the little five-toed animal just mentioned, up through
the forms with three toes, to the present form with one, the so-
called " splint bones " at the side being all that is left of the
original digits II and IV, all traces of Nos. I and V having
long since disappeared. Along with this reduction in the number
of toes has gone a gradual increase in the size of the body and
a hardening of the teeth till the readaptation was complete from
a small and probably timid animal living on soft feed and low
ground to the swiftest of all animals, of good size, subsisting on
upland grasses and prairies and fitted for locomotion on hard land.

More than to any one else we are indebted for this history to
Professor H. F". Osborn of the American Museum of Natural
History, New York, who is now completing his material for an
almost perfect history of the horse, from the diminutive ancestor
down, or rather up, to the modern domesticated form, with many
distinct types between, but merging into each other gradually
and distinguished by differences almost imperceptible. Differ-
ing though they do from the modern horse, these many forms
are clearly horselike, and, moreover, they are connected by un-
mistakable links that bind them all together as one of the
greatest evolutionary achievements of the earth.

As has been intimated, this history has been largely traced
through fossil remains found in western America, especially in
Wyoming. Europe affords evidences of the same evolutionary
processes, and without a doubt the same course of development
could be traced in Asia, as will likely one day be done, if exten-
sive explorations are made in that country.

214

DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS

We know that several horselike forms developed in South
America, but that all perished for one cause or another, one at
least from soft teeth. It is exceedingly remarkable that while
the North American horse progressed almost up to the modern

Head

Fore Foot

HindFoot

Teeth

OneToe

Splints of

2nd and 4th

digits

One_Toe

Splints of

2nd and 4th

digits

Protohippus

Mesohippus

ThreeToes

Side toes

not touching

the ground

ThreeToes

Side toes

not touching

the ground

Long-
Crowned,
Cement-
covered

Three Toes

Side toes

touching the

ground;

Splint 0/ 5th digit

Protorohippus

Hyracotherium
(Eohippus)

ThreeToes

Side toes

touching the

ground

Four Toes

Short -
Crowned,
without
Cement

Four_Toes
Splint of
1st digit

ThreeToes
Splint of
5th digit

Fig. 38. Comparative drawings of skulls, feet, and teeth of prehistoric horses,

showing evolutionary development. Reproduced, by permission, from "Origin

and History of the Horse," by H. F. Osborn

type,^ he became extinct for some reason, and, so far as we know,
before he was ever domesticated.

What caused this extinction here and yet preserved the
Asiatic form till man came upon the earth we cannot, with our
present knowledge, even conjecture; though it is known that the

1 He had reached the size of the Shetland pony with three toes, only one
of which rested firmly on the ground, digits II and IV being much like the
"dew claws" (digits II and V) of pigs ; digits I and V being represented by
"splints" (digits numbered I-V beginning on the inside).

ORIGIN OF DOMESTICATED ANIMALS 215

horse, while able to maintain himself against wolves in Asia, is
not able to withstand the puma, which has exterminated the feral
horses in certain localities of South America.

All this, however, is but ancient history, and now we can only
speculate upon what would have been our misfortune and our
condition had the prehistoric horselike animal become extinct
in Asia, as he did in the rest of the world, and we had been
obliged to get on without the horse.^

Since his domestication the horse has doubtless changed but
little. He is larger, stronger, and swifter, but structurally he
seems to have been for a long time a finished animal. Under
domestication he has developed the trot, until with some breeds
it is an instinctive gait. This is a great tribute to breeding, for
the trot is not a natural gait with animals of the horse kind,
except for a few steps between the canter and the walk.

However early the domestication of the horse, — and it must
have been very early, — its introduction into modern historic life
is comparatively recent. For example, the Egyptian carvings
and frescoes show nothing of the horse until after the close of
the rule of the shepherd kings (1800 or 1900 B.C.), when that
country first came into contact with Assyria. In Xerxes' army
even the Arabs were mounted upon camels. The Hebrews had
no horses until about the time of Solomon and after their ac-
quaintance with the Syrians. The earliest human records of the
horse are the Assyrian sculptures, where, curiously enough, the
horseman is accompanied by an attendant who leads the horse,
an attention which would be greatly scorned by his Cossack
representative of to-day, as it would by any rider not the merest
novice, showing that we have improved somewhat in horseman-
ship since the old Assyrian days.

The ass (Equus hemionus and Equusasinus). In eastern countries
the ass has long been a favorite beast of burden, antedating the
horse by many centuries. In our own country this animal has

1 It, will add to our appreciation of the horse if students will choose this
topic for an occasional composition.

2l6 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS

not been a favorite except in the form of the mule, which is
half horse. ^

Two distinct species of the truly wild ass are known, the
Asiatic {E. hemiotms) and the African {E. asinus). The for-
mer range over the more arid regions of Syria, Persia, Tibet,
Mongolia, and western India, and the latter is indigenous to
Abyssinia and the highlands of northeastern Africa generally.

It is from this latter stock that the common ass of Europe
and America is descended, through the early Egyptian domesti-
cation. It is considered more than likely also, on account of
their close resemblance, that the domesticated races of Asia trace
to the same source rather than to the wild stock of their own
country, at least so far as the historic regions of Palestine and
the west are concerned, whose relations were from an early day
much more intimate with the civilization of Egypt than with
the wild and remote Asiatic regions inhabited by E. hemiomis.

Upon the whole, it cannot be said that the ass has profited
much by domestication. Fitted by nature to exist under hard
conditions, man has made the most of his natural faculties in
this direction, and he has generally suffered neglect and abuse
above that of any animal that has ever been domesticated, un-
less it may be the Eskimo dog. Accordingly he is almost every-
where a dull, spiritless creature, poorly fed and ill conditioned
generally, — a walking advertisement of a hard life.

All writers, however, both ancient and modern, agree as to
the spirit, beauty, and fleetness of the wild ass, especially the
African progenitor of the domesticated form. Bible history, too,
teaches that the ass was not always regarded with the low esteem
of the present day, but that in former times he was a general
favorite in domestication as he was a common symbol among

1 Strictly speaking, a "mule" is any hybrid or "cross" between distinct
species. In common parlance, however, the term is limited to the offspring of
the female horse and the male ass. The opposite or reciprocal cross between
the female ass and the male horse is called the hinny. It does not differ
materially from the mule, but is seldom seen because oTthe aversion to keeping
the ass in numbers, as would be necessary to breed hinnies.

ORIGIN OF DOMESTICATED ANIMALS 217

Hebrew writers for swiftness and spirit in the wild. It appears
that he has suffered .by comparison with the horse, of which he
is instinctively regarded as a sort of poor relation. The Spanish
people, however, have continued in their esteem of this useful
animal, and it is to them that we owe the excellent quality of
our modern stock, particularly as regards size, spirit, and finish.

It requires but the slightest contact with this peculiar relative
of the horse to discover that anything like low spirits and inac-
tivity are the result partly of poor feed and partly of an excessive
suspicion of all new things and an exaggerated disposition not
to run away like the horse, but to stop and investigate ; indeed,
curiosity is one of his principal faculties. As to intellect, he is
easily underrated, for he is fully the equal of the horse, his
stupidity being apparent and not real, like that of the ox.

The excessively long ears and large bone of the modern ass
are the distinguishing features of the African stock, whereas the
Asiatic has short ears, is lighter in limb, and so swift in action
that it is said to be impossible for the hunter to run one of them
down even with the best of mounts.

In connection with the domesticated horse and ass another
group of closely related wild animals must be mentioned, the
zebra {Eqims zebra) and the quagga {Eq?ius quagga). These
strange horselike animals, in most respects nearer like the ass
than the horse, exist in some three or four well-marked and
more or less distinct races, all native to southern Africa.

The true zebra is smaller (twelve to thirteen hands) ^ than
either the horse or the ass, lives in the highlands, and is
covered on both body and legs with a beautifully complete
system of black stripes on a background of dirty white.^ The

1 A " hand " is four inches, and is the universal unit for measuring the
height of horses. This height is taken at the withers or shoulders, at what
would be the highest point of the body when the animal is standing with his
head down, as in grazing.

2 Suggesting the reason for the ancient name " hippotigris," — /lippo (horse)
and /i^^rz/ (tiger), — a name similar in make-up to "camelopard" (camel leopard)
for the giraffe.

DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS

quagga has shorter ears and wears more hair upon the tail than
does the zebra. He is also somewhat heavier in the body and
the stripes are less distinctly marked, fading out almost com-
pletely into a dirty white on the hinder and under parts of the
body, except for a dark back stripe running from the withers
to the setting on of the tail. The flesh of the quagga has

Fig. 39. The water buffalo of Asia and Africa. This is the only true

buffalo, though the name is often applied to both the American and the

European bison

long been esteemed by the Boers as food for servants, that is,
natives.

In all of these types and races the zebra is timid in the wild
and vicious in captivity. Accordingly he has never been domesti-
cated or even fully tamed except to the extent seen in shows, and
to the further extent that individuals are sometimes " in-spanned "
with mules by the African farmers, thus making up a part of
the team.

ORIGIN OF DOMESTICATED ANIMALS 219

The ox. Our domesticated cattle are of two distinct species :
Bos taunts, covering all European and American races and
breeds ; and Bos indicus, the smaller, lighter-limbed, and so-
called sacred ^ or humped cattle of India, similar to the Galla
cattle of Africa.

Both of these species have been so long domesticated and
the countries they inhabit are so densely populated that it is
impossible to identify the original wild stock of either. There
is, however, no lack of material from which they might have
sprung, for their wild relatives are numerous and our only diffi-
culty is in assigning exact relationships.

These relationships, however, are more easily traced for the
Indian cattle than for the European and American breeds,
because the vast and largely inaccessible mountain wildernesses
of the Himalayan foothills afford a secure retreat and harbor
for a number of truly wild races of the cattle kind, almost any
one of which might have been the true progenitor of Bos ittdicus?

Perhaps the most notable of these, as it is the largest, is the
gaur {Bos gmcriis), a thoroughly wild and untamed animal
inhabiting the hills and inaccessible highlands of India, extend-
ing as far eastward as Burma and the Malay Peninsula, where it
is known as the sladong. This is a true wild ox of monstrous
size, standing occasionally as high as eighteen hands, or six feet,
in exceptional old males. His height is exaggerated by his
exceedingly high withers, amounting to a hump, were it not that
the elevation is prolonged into a ridge running well down the

1 This is evidently another of the many erroneous but popular traditions. I
am assured by the most reliable Hindus that these cattle are no more sacred
than are any others ; indeed, that they are not, all things considered, so highly
esteemed as is the buffalo.

2 These Hindu cattle are familiar to every boy that has attended the shows.
They are smaller and more slender than our cattle, and their more suitable
conformation and gentle disposition fit them so excellently for the road that
they are freely used for purposes of travel in their own country. Ranging from
a clear white to a dirty cream color, with their curious hump at the shoulders,
they make a most striking appearance that would distinguish them from the
common cattle of our own country, even to the most casual observer.

2 20 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS

back. The color is brown, often tawny white. The horns are
truly monstrous, being occasionally, according to good authority,
as long as thirty-nine inches each, with a basal girth as high as
nineteen inches. This animal is exceedingly wary, avoiding
cultivated or open country of any kind, and, as has been said,

(

■ .«<tfllBkte^^''^aJiKt

i^^tS^^M^P

I^^^Bj^Hj^B^n^^^^^^^^. ,

^^fK^^^mrj^:

" '.^^hhhHh^S9

j^y^a^^^^^BHlPyi^^r^'M/'

E^^^^^^^^^^

"^i^^S^SBSmKKl^^^ H

H^^BB

^ ^'"^^^^^^^^"^^iSlJ^^^^^HEl^^BBSBt vi

"^^^

Fig, 40. The gaur, or great wild ox of the highlands of India

is never domesticated. He is a true wild ox in every partic-
ular, as large, undoubtedly, as the Bos primigenus of Europe
ever was.

The gayal, sometimes called mithan, is a semidomesticated
and near relative of the gaur, inhabiting the hilly lands of north-
eastern India. It is smaller than the gaur, and, being lower at
the withers and higher at the hump, stands with his back nearly
level. He runs wild in the more remote districts, and is to be

ORIGIN OF DOMESTICATED ANIMALS

221

regarded as an intermediate between the domesticated and the
wild cattle of the Indian type.

The banteng, or native ox of Java, extending also well into the
continent in the region of Burma, is a close relative of the gaur
and the gayal, but nearer the common or domesticated form. It
exists both domesticated and wild. All these species have a
much better opportunity to linger indefinitely in their natural

elk, or wild ox of Tibet

State than had similar species in Europe, because of the immense
stretches of hills and unbroken wilderness lying along the base
and up the foothills of the Himalayan Mountains. Accordingly
we are not surprised at being able to find here truly wild cattle.
Still higher up in the highlands of Tibet, fourteen to twenty
thousand feet above the sea, is the yak {Bos grimniens), that
hardiest of all the cattle kind, delighting in the wildest hardships
of that most forbidding country. He is a true ox in all essential
particulars, not very well endowed with vision but with the

22 2 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS

keenest scent. He can be domesticated and is employed as a
beast of burden, but if unused for a little time, he becomes
extremely wild and likely to escape on opportunity. In any
event he steadily refuses to eat corn, confining himself to the
hard and scanty grasses of his native plateaus.

Asia affords still one more relative of the cattle kind, though
a little more distant than these just enumerated. This is the
wild buffalo {Bos biibiihis), the race to which the term " buffalo "
properly belongs.^ These curious animals are about the size of
the largest of our common cattle, of a dun or mouse color, nearly
destitute of hair, with long, flattened, and corrugated horns curv-
ing backward rather than forward, as in most of the cattle kind.
The wild buffaloes are domesticated in both India and Burma,
where they are highly esteemed for their milk, and where they
are indispensable for labor in the rice fields and other lowlands ^
(see Fig. 39).

Their love for water is proverbial, and whether domesticated
or wild the heat of the day will generally find them comfortably
submerged in any accessible water, with only the nostrils stick-
ing out. Nothing can restrain them from seeking this protection
against heat and insects in the middle of the day, and if the
farmer is slow in detaching the plow or wagon, it makes very
little difference with the buffalo after he is fairly headed for the
stream or the pool. The buffalo is wild on the plains of the
Ganges, the Brahmaputra, and along the foot of the Himalayas,
besides having become feral in the forests of Burma and other
regions in southeastern Asia.

Besides these Asiatic species, closely related to our domestic
cattle, we have the Galla ox, a humped race native to Africa and
considered by Riitimeyer as closely related to the banteng of

1 The term is popularly but erroneously applied to the American bison,
which is structurally as far removed from the true buffalo as are our common
cattle.

2 These useful animals have also made their way as domesticated beasts of
labor over considerable portions of Asia Minor, Egypt, and Italy, and may be
seen in most of our shows and zoological gardens of this country and Europe.

ORIGIN OF DOMESTICATED ANIMALS 223

Asia. Africa also possesses several distinct species of true
buffalo, notably the cape buffalo of the south, — with horns much
like those of the musk ox, — the Sierra Leone buffalo, and the
small red or short-horned species of the western coast region.

In extinct forms of large size Africa is peculiarly rich. If
accounts may be believed, the horn cores of one specimen from
Algeria measured no less than eleven feet and another from the
cape fourteen feet. As they would be considerably larger when
covered with their horny sheath, the spread of the horns and
the size of these animals must have been truly prodigious.

2^^^8

^^^^^1

^^^^^^1

K^^K^flHI^^^^^I

r '1

^fe'- • '^^

^^^^Wi

r . ...^

Hh^^^'

... :!**.. ■'"''\'- „

- ' ' ,-,. * -

■ - (*■

*■ ^ ' . ■^'•*

Fig. 42. Sir Donald, head of the' largest herd of bisons in America
Canadian National Park, Banff, Alberta

It will be seen, therefore, that the domesticated cattle of both
Asia and Africa have no lack of wild relatives both living and
extinct, and the fact of their ultimate origin in the wild must be
clear to the most casual student, — so clear that if the domes-
ticated races should suddenly become extinct, they, or equally
good successors, could be readily restored from the wild.

However this may be in the western continent, all closely
related species were extinct in America, if, indeed, they ever
existed, long before its discovery by the white man. The bison
(Bos america7ius), popularly but erroneously called the buffalo,
a close relative of the European bison {Bos bonus sits), was the

224 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS

only native wild animal of the cattle kind known to America.
This noble animal literally abounded on the western plains and
has practically become extinct within the memory of men still
young ; indeed the Union Pacific Railroad and its first contract
with Buffalo BilP practically sealed the death warrant of the
finest wild animal on the western continent.

This animal would surely have been domesticated and made
into a useful servant, had we not already possessed our common
cattle, making it unnecessary to begin over again ; just as we
should have domesticated the prairie chicken except for the
hen, and just as our forefathers did domesticate the wild tur-
key 2 of the New England woods.

The common cattle both of this country and Europe had an
undoubted origin in one or more of the primitive races of the
cattle kind that inhabited that country in the earliest times,
descendants of which are now extinct, except as they have been
preserved by accidental inclosure in the hunting parks of certain
estates in England. In prehistoric ages the whole of Europe
except Ireland was ranged over by an immense wild animal of
the cattle kind, known to science as B. primigemis, or first ox.

Remains of this animal are found in brick clays and peat
bogs in many places, from the skulls of which it is inferred that
the spread of horns must have been at least four feet. Some of
these skulls are pierced by flint arrowheads, showing that they
were hunted probably for food as far back as the paleolithic or
oldest stone age.

This animal or its immediate descendants persisted in the
forests of Central Europe until comparatively recent times. It

1 Colonel William F. Cody, a noted hunter and Indian scout, took the con-
tract to supply the workmen with buffalo meat during the construction of this
road. Thus the bison literally gave his life for the first transcontinental rail-
road. The great numbers killed under this contract (69 in one day and 4862
in one year) earned for Mr. Cody the name of Huffalo Bill, a name he will
carry through life, and under which he organized and conducted his famous
Wild West Show, exhibiting, as this is written, but a few miles away.

2 See section on the turkey.

ORIGIN OF DOMESTICATED ANIMALS 225

was hunted by Caesar and his followers under the name of
aurochs, or urus, as it was called by Charlemagne in the ninth
century. (It was certainly encountered by the first crusaders
and is known to have lingered in the neighborhood of Worms
as late as the twelfth century.)

This was the great European wild ox, and it is from him that
all our larger breeds of common cattle are universally supposed
to have descended. Contemporaneous with him one or more
smaller and more slender races ^ inhabited the same regions,
especially toward the west. It is from these latter that the Jersey
and its nearest relative, the Guernsey, are supposed to have
descended, an assumption resting, of course, upon structural
considerations rather than upon direct historic evidence.

A curious circumstance connects these ancient times with the
living present. There are now in the hunting parks of several
of the great estates of England herds of wild white cattle, notably
those at Chillingham in southern Scotland and Chartley and
Cadzow in northern England.

These herds are the direct descendants of the original wild
cattle confined in these parks along with other game some eight
or nine hundred years ago and perhaps longer ; indeed, authentic
mention is made of the Chillingham cattle in 1220, thus over-
lapping the known last days of the aurochs, with which they are
supposed to be identical, though much reduced in size by reason
of close confinement to the northern limits of their natural range^

All these so-called " park cattle " or '' wild white cattle " are
somewhat smaller than the larger breeds of domestic cattle of
to-day. They are of a uniform dirty white color except the ears,
muzzles, switch of the tail, and the lower portions of the legs,
which range from brown to a brownish red. They are generally
horned and in every way resemble common cattle except as to

1 These are variously called Bos lottgifrons, Bos frontosus, etc., from the
different specimens that have been found of these early " deerlike " forms of
the cattle kind. It is significant that none of these cattle are found back of the
later stone age.

2 26 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS

size, color, and disposition, which is very wild. Their identity
with the ancient aurochs is almost assured, leaving us to look
with confidence upon these wild park cattle as the native stock
out of which European and especially English breeds have been
developed. As American breeds are almost exclusively English,

Fig. 43. Hood Farm Pogis 9 of 55552. A champion himself out of a

champion sire and dam, and sire of a champion. Head of Hood Farm

herd of Jerseys. Courtesy of C. I. Hood & Co.

excepting only the Brown Swiss, their lineage is fairly well
established as running back to the aurochs, or B. primigemcs^
through the '' park cattle " ^ of to-day.

An interesting confirmation of this assumption occurs fre-
quently, especially among Devon cattle, which are known to have
developed from the early native cattle of southern England.

1 See " Wild White Cattle of Great Britain," by Storer, for a most fascinating
account of these interesting remains of earlier days, that would have afforded
richer relics had Europe possessed the inaccessible highlands of southern Asia
as natural and safe retreats for these wild animals of the cattle kind.

ORIGIN OF DOMESTICATED ANIMALS

227

These cattle are ordinarily solid red in color, but in rare instances
a calf is dropped that is solid white except its ears and muzzle,
which are invariably red or brown, closely resembling the modem
wild white cattle of the parks.^

The sheep {Ovis aries). Here again domestication took
place so long ago that its history is lost, and no man can say
what were the precise species that furnished the foundation
for our domesticated forms.
Certain it is that wild ani-
mals of the sheep kind are
and have been common on
the earth in nearly all moun-
tain regions of proper
latitude.

There is no grander
specimen of the wild sheep
in all the earth than the big-
horn of the Rocky Moun-
tains, Ovis ca7iadensis .
Standing three and a half
feet high at the withers (full-grown males), with strong, well-knit
legs supporting a muscular body covered with a dense coat of
light brown hair fading to a dirty white beneath, carrying through-
out a dense coat of ''shining white underwool," this animal as a
whole is a striking specimen, even without reference to the head,
which is, after all, the distinguishing feature of the bighorn.

This head is composed of a massive skull supporting a pair
of truly immense horns, sweeping upward and backward, then

1 This is " reversion," or resemblance to a remote ancestor rather than to
the true parent, about which more was said in earUer chapters. The same
thing happens in nearly all breeds, and it is so common that a visit to large
stockyards like those of Chicago rarely fails to find at least one specimen of
this kind. Riding past a freight train standing on a siding, not long since, I
saw in bold relief among the cattle on one of the cars the characteristic dirty
white face, upturned slanting horns, and red ears of the Chillingham cattle. It
was an accidental product of an Illinois herd on his way to market, — mute wit-
ness of a history that is passing fast and must soon be read only in the books.

Fig. 44. The Dorset, an English horned

breed, nearer the bighorn than any other

domesticated breed

2 28 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS

forward and outward in a graceful spiral curve not displayed by
any other animal known to the wild. These horns have been
known to measure thirty-three, and in rare cases forty, inches
when measured along the curve, and with a girth at the skull of
no less than fifteen or sixteen inches.

These magnificent animals choose their range far up the most
inaccessible mountain ledges, and, when surprised, have the most
marvelous ability both to clamber and to leap. They readily
leap thirty or forty feet, striking safely on the feet,^ and a drop
down precipices of one hundred to one hundred and fifty feet
is said to be well within their ability.

'Phis true wild sheep ranges from the mountains of Mexico
to those of Alaska. Its flesh is said to equal the best venison,
and it would undoubtedly have yielded to domestication if we
ha(J,p.ot already been well supplied with sheep when the country
was discovered.

On the Asiatic side the Kamchatkan wild sheep {Ovis nivi-
cold) closely resembles the bighorn except that he is lighter in
body and limb and finer in head and horn. As with him, both
sexes are horned. Off to the southwest in northern Mongolia
is the closely related argali {Ovis amnion), and further on in the
highlands of Tibet is a slightly different species, Ovis hodgsoni.
Still further to the southwest in eastern Turkestan, and at an
elevation of ten to twelve thousand feet, is the wild Pamir sheep
(Ovis poli), the only rival of the bighorn. This fellow can
boast a horn measuring as much as sixty inches, but without the
magnificent curve of the bighorn, as it stands out somewhat at
the side, that is, has a greater spread. The mountain regions
of southern Asia are well supplied with sheeplike animals, too
numerous in their species even to be enumerated here.

Off to the west we have the Armenian sheep {Ovis gmelini),
in the islands of the Mediterranean the Cyprian {Ovis ophion)^
and further west, in Corsica and Sardinia, the Mouflon {Ovis

1 It is asserted, but upon questionable authority, that a favorite habit of the
bighorn when he doubts his legs is to light upon his head.

ORIGIN OF DOMESTICATED ANIMALS

229

musinion). These are all horned sheep from which such a breed
as the Merino might have descended with no more change than
is often effected in domestication.

From these wild types the species shade off into the blue
sheep of Tibet and the Barbary sheep, with its wealth of long
hair on its throat and legs, and its horselike tail, but standing
between the sheep and the goat, as the musk ox stands between

Fig. 45. Domestication complete. A wild mountain animal brought to the
lowlands and ready to follow the call of man

the cattle and the sheep. From here on are a sheer multitude
of more or less distantly related species, — goats, ibex, markhor,
tahr, nilgiri, goral, serow, chamois, eland, kudu, antelope, nyl-
ghau, gemsbok, gazelle, springbok, puku, klipspringer, llama,
alpaca, and scores of others down to the gnu, or wild beast with
the horn of a musk ox, the head and mane of a bison, the tail
of a horse, and body and legs midway between the horse and
the cow.

230 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS

It cannot fail to occur to the reader that the wild and inacces-
sible mountain regions and high plateaus of central and southern
Asia have afforded a unique retreat for multitudes of the wild
relatives of the larger of our domestic animals/ and that to a
similar but less extent the mountain regions of Africa and of
western America, both to the north and the south, have served
the same significant purpose.

The domestic sheep are, roughly speaking, of four distinct
classes : first, the horned varieties like the Merino and the Dor-
set, resembling most closely the nearest wild relatives ; second,
the common hornless and coarse-wooled breeds of England and
America, such as the Shropshire, Lincoln, Cotswold, Leicester,
and Southdown ; third, the so-called fat-tailed sheep of south-
western Asia and northeastern Africa, in some strains of which
the tail often reaches a weight of forty or fifty pounds and drags
upon the ground, while in others, with shorter tails, the enormous
amount of fat occurs in the rump ; ^ fourth, a minor strain be-
longing to Iceland and remarkable for the fact that, like the
Cyprian wild sheep, its horns are not limited to two, but, ac-
cording to Youatt, may be three or any other number, odd or
even, up to as many as eight.

It must be clear to the student that there is no dearth of
evidence in nature for the domestication of sheep, and that, even
yet, should all our common breeds be lost, they could be sub-
stantially restored from new material out of the truly wild. The
greatest change made in domestication would seem to have

1 It is difficult to realize that this " roof of the world" — this high and broken
interior with its forbidding mountainous southern wall, in most places almost
uninhabitable by man and hence practically given over to the wild — is not a
small area, but rather a region of vast extent, not less than two thousand miles
across. When this is fully realized it will not seem so strange that almost
everything traces to a wild counterpart in " central Asia." It is the great left-
over and uncivilized part of the world.

2 This fat is exceedingly soft, more like marrow than tallow, and is often
spread directly oh bread and eaten as butter. It is the skins of the young
lambs of these sheep that constitute the astrakhan of commerce, and it is their
intestines from which the Germans make the so-called catgut for the violin
and other small stringed instruments.

ORIGIN OF DOMESTICATED ANIMALS 23 1

been in the length of staple and fineness in fiber of the wool,
and probably in the accumulation of fat, for no wild sheep is
known that has the fat-secreting habit of the fat-tailed breeds ;
indeed, most of the wild species are extremely short-tailed.

The goat. This near relative of the sheep has been domesti-
cated from the earliest times, and his wild relatives are yet
abundant in many parts of the world, particularly from the
Pyrenees of Spain eastward to the great central plateau of Asia.
The Angora, which is native to Asia Minor and is noted for its
beautiful fleece ; the Kashmir of Bokhara and Tibet, which is
the source of the famous cashmere shawls ; the Syrian goat of
southwestern Asia ; the Sudan goat of northern Africa ; and
the Egyptian goat of Egypt, from the lower Nile to its native
hills in Nubia, — these are the principal races of interest from
the standpoint of usefulness and domestication,
y- The pig. As with the sheep so with the pig ; almost every
region of the earth has its native species, no less than a score
of which are well known and fully described by naturalists.

The peccary is the wild pig of Central and South America,
though he is one of the farthest removed of the wild relatives
in having not the simple stomach of the true pig but a complex
digestive apparatus something like the ruminants. The common
pig certainly does not trace directly to the peccary, which, how-
ever, would have afforded material suitable for domestication
had it not been rendered unnecessary by the better forms
already in our possession. \

The great wild ancestor\^ our common pig exists in two
well-marked species, the European wild boar (S7fs scrofa) and
the Indian wild boar {Siis cristatus).

The European species originally ranged over all Europe,
northern Africa, and central and western Asia as far even as
Mesopotamia and Beluchistan. It is now extinct in most of its
former stamping grounds, but yet lingers in some of the forests
of Germany where the boar hunt is a favorite form of amuse-
ment. The blood of this species has been freely employed in

2 32 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS

the development of the larger English breeds, such as the York-
shire, the Tamworth, and the Berkshire, the latter so largely
represented in that truly American breed, the Poland China.

The Indian wild boar is closely related and very similar to
the European. He runs a little larger, standing often as high
as forty inches at the shoulders. Like his European cousin he
is a dangerous enemy and does not hesitate, when pursued, to
attack whatever appears, — men, horses, elephants, or even tigers.
Boar hunting, as it is called in Europe, and " pig sticking," as
the term goes in India, are therefore counted specially fine
sports for the hunter.

Both these species inhabit the forests of the lower lands and
both cover extensive stretches of country. Their food is varied,
ranging from grass roots and worms, which they dig from the
ground with their serviceable rooters, to small animals, especially
snakes, against which they seem to hold a special grudge, and
which they are peculiarly skillful in killing by jumping and
lighting with all four feet on the tail, ripping up the creature
into " shoe strings " with their enormous tusks, which are the
prolonged incisor teeth.

Besides the Indian wild boar southeastern Asia affords a
large number of closely related but smaller races. There are no
less than a half dozen of these well-marked species in the Malay
Peninsula alone, besides the curious little pigmy hog {S?is sal-
vaniiis) of the Himalayan foothills, standing only ten or eleven
inches at the shoulders. Still again there is the masked pig of
Japan, with its heavy folds of skin about the face and its immense
drooping ears.

PYom some or several of these Asiatic species domesticated
races were doubtless developed long ago. Certain it is that
domesticated pigs were known in China before they were in
Europe, and that much of the blood of modern domestic swine
came originally from this stock, and would be traceable, if we
knew the history, to some of these native races or their extinct
relatives, of which there are many, ranging from a giant form

ORIGIN OF DOMESTICATED ANIMALS 233

about the size of a common mule down to one not much larger
than the modern pigmy hog of India. Evidently the hog tribe
has been a long time with us and has seen, as it is now seeing,
exceedingly prosperous days.

Besides these already mentioned, Asia affords another notable
species, the babiroussa, a little further removed from the true
pig, as he has a pair of tusks rising from his nose and midway
between his snout and his eyes. He is, however, essentially a
wild pig, and in his natural habitat, the lowlands of Celebes, he
is found both wild and domesticated.

Africa affords a goodly number of wild relatives, notably the
gray bush pig {S?is africamis) of the south-central regions and
the little red bush pig or river hog {Sns porais) of the west-
ern lowlands. Aside from these true pigs there are several
species of the so-called wart hogs, ugly specimens with immense
heads and broad noses crowned with vicious tusks, deriving
their name from three hornlike " warts " that develop on the
side of the face just below the eyes.

Altogether the pig is not at all wanting in relatives of the
woods, even without going to the more remote connections such
as the rhinoceros, the hippopotamus, or the elephant. Of all our
domesticated animals none are more readily traced to the wild and
none more quickly or more thoroughly revert to the feral state.
The pig in domestication is generally quiet and harmless, but he
is capable of a good fight, and in the semiwild state a drove of
hogs is an enemy more dangerous than most wild animals.

Quite contrary to popular opinion, the pig is among the
cleanest of our domestic animals. Like the buffalo he seeks
the water, or mud in absence of water, as a protection against
the heat of the sun. Having no sweat glands, he gets no relief
by evaporation from his own body, and his resort to the cooling
effects of water is not only natural but necessary.

The cat {Felis catus). Here again domestication is lost in
antiquity, but the origin is not difficult to trace. Wild catlike
animals are common in the world, and nowhere more common

234 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS

than in North America, where the wild cat and lynx inhabited
the primeval forests in more or less abundance. Indeed, the
domestic cat possesses a wide range of wild congeners the world
over, beginning with the tiger and the lion and shading off,
through the jaguar, the leopard, and the puma, to its nearer
relatives, the marbled cat {Felis marmorata) of the eastern
Himalayas and Burma ; the golden cat {Felis temmineki) of
northern India, Tibet, and the Malay Peninsula ; the fishing
cat {Felis viverrind) of India; the spotted leopard cat {Felis ben-
galensis), and a great number and variety of similar species be-

FiG. 46. The European and the American wild cats respectively. Clearly our
domesticated cat is more closely related to the former

longing to the same general region. Besides these there are the
yellowish-gray Caff re or Egyptian cat {Felis caffraY, from which
the European species, which he greatly resembles, has doubtless
sprung ; the common wild cat {Felis eatus), which has inhabited
England since the days of the mammoth, and at one time cov-
ered all Europe except the southern portion ; the pampas cat
of South America, the jungle cat of India, and so on into the
lynxes, the hunting leopard, and other more distant relatives.

All wild animals of the cat kind are universally hated by
hunters because of their stealth and innate savagery, for, whether
tiger or leopard, panther, puma, jaguar, lynx, or wild cat, they

1 Also called Felis caligata and Felis manicitlata.

ORIGIN OF DOMESTICATED ANIMALS

235

are the most terrible of all wild animals. It is also an open
question if the domestic cat has not lost his usefulness long
ago, if, indeed, he ever had any. He never was but half-
domesticated at best, and while he is a universal favorite with
children because of his furry coat and look of seeming intelli-
gence, he is yet essentially a wild animal, almost incapable of
true domestication. He has lost little of his innate savagery,
and as a relentless foe of birds he has really become an enemy
to our civilization. The sooner he could become extinct the
better for our song birds on which we depend so much not only
for our pleasure but for protection against the depredations of
insects. The true nature of the cat should be more commonly
understood in this respect, as well as its proclivity to throat dis-
eases common to children. We can well afford to do without
the cat.

Domesticated Birds

The domestication of birds ^ was a great achievement, whether
viewed from the standpoint of its inherent difficulty, the quality
and cheapness of their meat
and eggs, or the utility of
their feathers. All told, the
domesticated birds cover
many species, with scores of
wild relatives in all parts of
the world. Most of them
being, in the wild state,
good flyers, their distribution
is much wider than is that of
species more closely confined
to locomotion on the ground.
"* The hen. Of all the birds
domesticated none is more valuable than the chicken {Galhis
domesticiis), whose undoubted progenitor, Gallns bankivus, can
yet be heard cackling in the forests of Farther India ; all of

1 See Darwin's "Animals and Plants under Domestication," Vol. I, p. 236.

Fig. 47.. A trio of prize-winning barred

Plymouth Rocks, property of Bradley

Bros., Lee, Massachusetts

236 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS

which suggests the fact that, as in many similar cases, we owe
a lasting debt of gratitude to the ancient people of that far-off
country for thus bringing into our service one of the most wary
of all the wild birds, and making of it one of the most valuable
of the domesticated races.

Its nearest relatives are the pheasants, and many exceedingly
closely related species are found wild in widely scattered regions
of the East, their favorite haunts being the forests of Farther
India. The prairie chicken of the West, though a true grouse,
is, to all intents and purposes, the American equivalent of this
Asiatic product, and, had it been necessary, would have afforded
material for a valuable domestic bird.

■ The goose. The wild goose yet lingers in many parts of the
world, notably the gray lag goose {Anser cinerciis), nesting
in the northern British Islands, — the probable parent of the
domesticated goose. Its American equivalent is represented by
no less than three well-defined species, the snow goose of the
far north (Afiser hypei'boreiis), the smaller Ross's goose of
the northwest and the blue-winged goose (Ajiser rcrr?i/esceHs),
whose feeding and breeding places are along the great lakes of
northern United States and Canada. Besides these there are
many closely related species ; indeed, they breed everywhere in
the subarctic regions.

Here, again, it was a foreign strain that furnished the material
for domestication, because the goose is an old-time favorite ;
indeed, it is probable that he has already passed his period of
greatness among us. He has always been prized for his feathers,
but cannot be regarded as the equal of either the chicken, the
turkey, or even the duck as a table delicacy.

The duck. Here again the wild form is common, indeed so
common as to be a favorite game bird. Of the numerous species
the beautiful mallard (Anas boscas) is the typical game duck
and is regarded as the parent and progenitor of the domesticated
form. This species is said to inhabit the whole of the western
hemisphere, wherever suitable feeding grounds can be found

ORIGIN OF DOMESTICATED ANIMALS 237

between the arctic circle and the tropics. He is a truly cosmo-
politan bird^ and it is not strange that many varieties and sub-
species should have developed as the result of his widespread
range and varied environment. Domestication of the duck is easy
and has undoubtedly been accomplished many times. More than
one hen has hatched a brood of wild duck's eggs, after which a
timely clipping of the wings insured a flock of tame ducks.
^ The turkey. Here at last we come to a truly American bird,
more fitting by far than the eagle to stand as the emblem
of America.

When our Puritan ancestors landed on the forbidding shores
of New England, they found the woods alive with a strange
wild bird, wary and fleet both of foot and wing, but most ex-
cellent eating and easily tamed.

This native of the New World not only helped out in the
"terrible winters," when food was scarce with the colonists, but
he remained in domestication to grace the tables of comfort,
and to-day the Thanksgiving turkey is everywhere the symbol
of plenty.

Of the four contributions of the New World to domesticated
species, namely corn, tobacco, the potato, and the turkey, the
latter is the only animal, and he clearly outranks any other food
bird that has ever been domesticated. Of this contribution to our
civilization America may well be proud, especially as no similar
species has ever been discovered elsewhere on earth, save only
the related brush turkey of Australia and the outlying islands.

The American turkey exists wild in no less than three distinct
species : Meleagris americana, the parent of the black turkey
of the eastern United States ; Meleagris gallopavo, of northern
Mexico, parent of the bronze strains ; and the beautiful Melea-
gris ocellata of Guatemala, Yucatan, and British Honduras,
described as radiant, with its " gfeenish-blue eyespot shot with
purple, while the metallic parts of the body feathers are golden
or bronze green and the naked head and neck blue, covered
with red warts."

238 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS

The peacock. History shows this bird to have been an ancient
table favorite in the Far East, but he has passed his period of
favor and is now relegated to a back-yard ornament, if, indeed,
he rises much above the level of a curiosity.

The peafowl, which is really one of the most gorgeous of
pheasants, still dwells in the wild state in northern India and
southeastern Asia, the most common species of India, Pavo
cristatus, being closest to the domesticated race. Among his*
nearest relatives, structurally as well as geographically, are the
peacock pheasants of the Malay Peninsula, extending even to
the island of Borneo. The beautiful Argus pheasant has the
eyespots in the wing rather than the tail, as in the true pheas-
ant, and accordingly it is the wing that is displayed.

The swan.' This bird, too, was anciently used for food, but
is now seen only as an ornament in public and private lakes
and ponds. The original abounds in nearly all the northern
waters of the world, and ranges from pure white to solid black.

The guinea fowl. This noisy little hen is hardly worthy of
being ranked as a domesticated fowl. The guinea is really an
African pheasant, of which several distinct and widely different
species are found wild along the western coast, from Liberia
southward. It is rarely kept in numbers, but a few are often
found with other poultry, " to scare off the hawks."

Additional Races and Semidomestication

Besides these animals with which we are best acquainted other
species have been wholly or partially domesticated, either by our-
selves or by other people, either in our own or other countries.

As the buffalo replaces our common cattle for labor in certain
humid regions, so the elephant is extensively employed wher-
ever he is found native, as in Asia and Africa. The camel is,
and always will be, the ship of the desert.

The llama and the alpaca of the Andean plateau — the one
to bear burdens, the other for its fleece — are both well known

ORIGIN OF DOMESTICATED ANIMALS 239

and only half-domesticated, as are the reindeer of the arctic
regions and the ostrich of the desert.

A few strange cases of semidomestication can be mentioned,
such as the cheetah, or hunting leopard, the falcon, or hunting
hawk, and the quite general utilization of certain breeds of
snakes in the tropics to rid the houses of vermin. To this can
be added the fact that we occasionally employ the weasel to
hunt out and destroy rats, as the Romans used the marten in
place of the cat to hunt mice.

Besides these might be mentioned a small multitude of pets,
representing nearly all species of wild animals, almost any of
which may be tamed if taken when young, and most of which
have been so treated not once but many times since their con-
tact with the human race.

And so the list might be extended almost indefinitely, were
the space available, to show fully how man has put to his own
uses the wild animals of forest, lake, and plain during his long
history on earth and his determined campaign to enslave them
and bring them, so far as possible, into his service.

Unwelcome domestication. Certain species have volunteered
to infest the habitations of man, attracted mostly by a liberal
food supply. Among these would be mentioned the rat and the
mouse, which are world-wide, both as house and as wild species.
The house fly is another pest that, together with the rat and
the mouse, is coming to be recognized not only as a common
nuisance, but also as a fruitful carrier of infectious diseases.

Besides these, a great variety of insect pests especially haunt
the habitations of man because there they find abundant food
supply and favorable conditions of life generally.

Exercises. 1. Extend the study of particular species and follow out the
wild connections, relatives, habitat, and habits further than in the text, em-
ploying for this purpose the facts of zoology and all the information avail-
able in histories, encyclopedias, and books of travel.

2. Secure information about the uses to which the less-known domes-
ticated animals are put, using again all available sources of information.

240 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS

3. Write compositions showing the extent to which any particular species,
as the horse or the sheep, has been helpful in the advancement of our
civilization, and how we should have been hampered had we been obliged
to get on without him.

4. Write an account of your personal experience in taming some wild
animal for a pet.

5. Write an account of your personal experience in training some young
domestic animal as a pet or for work.

6. Point out in domestic animals some habit or trait that it has brought
down from the wild, such as the pawing of snow by horses and sheep to get
at the grass beneath.

References. 1. "Animals and Plants under Domestication" (Vol. I,
chaps, i-viii, inclusive). Darwin.

2. "The Breeds of Domestic Animals." Plumb.

CHAPTER XVIII
ORIGIN OF CULTIVATED GRAINS AND GRASSES i

Cultivated plants, like domesticated animals, originated in the wild • The

grasses • Wheat • Barley • Indian corn • Oats • Rye • Rice • Sorghum • Sugar

cane • Millet • Buckwheat • Timothy • Blue grass • Redtop • Orchard grass •

The Festucas • Miscellaneous grasses

Cultivated plants, like domesticated animals, originated in
the wild. The succeeding chapter will show briefly how it was
that the choicest plants, like the most useful animals, came to be
appropriated by man, — taken out of their wild surroundings and
more or less completely domesticated. The present chapter will
deal with a few of the more important of the cultivated plants,
some of which are not yet fully domesticated.

By far the most useful of all plants is the so-called grass
family, used for grain, forage, and pasture. Botanically the
grasses are distinguished by narrow, parallel-veined leaves on a
jointed hollow stem bearing seeds on a more or less compact
spike at the top, like timothy and wheat, or, occasionally, at one
of the joints midway up the stem, as in Indian corn. These
plants are valuable, first, for their seeds, which are numerous and
large and distinguished for their starch content, and sometimes,
as in corn, for their oil. They are also valuable for forage be-
cause the immature stem and leaf when cured are eaten greedily
by nearly all domesticated animals.^ Besides this, many of the
smaller species, like blue grass and the so-called buffalo grasses

1 See Darwin's ''Animals and Plants under Domestication," Vol. I, chaps, ix,
X, and " Origin of Cultivated Plants," by Alphonse de Candolle, for additional
information about cultivated species. The latter volume has been freely drawn
upon for material in the present chapter.

2 Contrary to common belief, the pig likes hay, but he vastly prefers clover
or alfalfa to timothy or any of the grasses. See under Leguminous Plants.

241

242 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS

of the prairie, are excellent pasture ; indeed, most pastures, culti-
vated or native, consist largely of true grasses with a more or
less slight admixture of legumes.

Many of the true grasses are entirely unsuited to the uses of
man. The seeds are too few or too small for grain, or the stems
too coarse, too harsh, or too small for either hay or pasture. Of
course such species have never been domesticated ; indeed, but
a small proportion are suited to our use, as we fully realize when
we remember that the grass family numbers more species than
any other known to botany.

Wheat. This widespread species is the greatest single food
for man, and was, without doubt, one of the very first plants to
be brought out of the wild and cultivated, as it certainly has
been from the greatest antiquity. A small-grained variety has
been discovered among the remains of the lake dwellers
of Switzerland, dating from the early stone age of Europe —
contemporaneous certainly with the Trojan War about 1200 b.c,
and perhaps much earlier. The same kind of grain has been
found in the pyramids of Egypt, dating back more than three
thousand years before Christ, and the Chinese are known to
have cultivated this '' gift direct from Heaven " fully as early
as 2700 B.C.

Names for wheat are various and widespread in many lan-
guages, showing again, and on philological grounds, that its
cultivation dates from antiquity. The Egyptians called it br ;
the Hebrews, chittah; the Chinese, mai ; in Sanskrit it was
sumaita and godhuma; and in Basque, okJiaya} All this was
so long ago that it is now impossible to trace our wheat back
to its original wild form. Though it covers nearly all the culti-
vated lands of the world and exists in many varieties both red
and white, bearded and plain, there is growing nowhere on
earth any known plant sufficiently near to wheat to be regarded
with certainty as the original. Wheat exists now in four well-
marked species :

1 " Origin of Cultivated Plants," p. 356. ^

CULTIVATED GRAINS AND GRASSES 243

1 . Triticum vidgare, the common wheat as we know it, both
bearded and plain, red and white, winter and spring, a type that
is very ancient.

2. Triticum ticrgidum, or Triticum compositum as it is some-
times called, — a branching-headed race passing by the common
names of Egyptian wheat, wheat of miracle, or wheat of abun-
dance ; not of great antiquity, because old remains are not found
and no name exists for it in either Sanskrit, Indian, or Persian.

3. Triticum durum, or hard wheat, growing plentifully in
southern Europe under many names, none of which trace to
ancient origin, nor are its remains discovered in antiquity, leav-
ing the inference that it was derived from the common wheat,
T. vulgare, and at a not distant date.

4. Triticum polonicum, or Polish wheat, cultivated in the east
of Europe. Its original German name is gummer, and its other
names are individual or local, not connected with antiquity.

None of these races is known to grow wild anywhere on earth ;
indeed, they would not thrive as feral races, for wheat cannot
long maintain itself against weeds and the more vigorous wild
competitors.!

Besides the true wheats there are three closely related species
that may well engage our attention in this connection. These
are the common spelt {Triticum speltd), the one-grained wheat
{Triticum monococcum), and the two-grained or starch wheat
(Triticum, dicoccunt), the " emmer " of our own day.

The spelts stand to wheat much as the so-called husk corn
does to common maize ; that is, each kernel is enveloped in a
tight-fitting husk or chaff of its own, like oats or rice. All these
species were cultivated by the lake dwellers of Switzerland, and
common names for these wheatlike grains abound, but they all
trace to southern European or western Asiatic sources.

None of these species is positively known to be growing wild,
although different observers have asserted the finding of each.

1 This has been tried at Rothamsted, and a wheat field left to itself was soon
entirely overrun by weeds.

244 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS

The one most frequently claimed as a wildling is the mono-
coccum, but this is best fitted of all the wheats to maintain itself
in the wild state, as it thrives in the most forbidding land.

There is much reason also to consider this one-grained species
as the most primitive of all the races, and the one that is prob-
ably nearest the original wild plants from which our wheats have
been developed by countless generations of cultivation.

Some authorities are inclined to consider the spelts as having
been derived from the true wheats by breeding, but that is
hardly likely. The common facts of evolution, as we know
them, now indicate that it is easier for a species to change by
the loss of a character than by the acquisition of a new part.^
This accords, too, with the well-known fact that the so-called
husk corn, when planted, will give a considerable proportion of
corn with naked kernels.^

While true wheat is nowhere growing wild, we may confi-
dently regard the spelts, especially T. monococcnm, as repre-
senting a primitive stock, lost so far as botanists go, or else
unrecognizable because of great change in either the domesti-
cated or the wild species or in both. Facts both botanical and
philological, however, point to southeastern Europe and western
Asia as the general region in which wheat was developed, some
authorities confidently regarding Mesopotamia as the undoubted
original home.

In the midst of all this doubt three facts are clear : first, wheat
as we know it does not grow wild ; second, it has been cultivated
in substantially its present form for at least five or six thousand
years, and probably in some form from the remotest antiquity ;
third, it does not readily maintain itself in the wild, so that it
has either changed greatly or else its wild progenitor has been
greatly altered or never did exist outside some remote and
restricted area.

1 See chapter on Mutation.

* Candolle mentions that one sowing gave 225 ears of husk corn and 105
of the common form (" Origin of Cultivated Plants," p. 394).

CULTIVATED GRAINS AND GRASSES 245

Totally aside from all this, however, the student should under-
stand that there are still growing wild a number of closely allied
species belonging to the same genus of heavy-grained, wheatlike
plants. One of the most conspicuous of these is the common
quack grass, Triticum repens, which maintains itself by its running
rootstock, independent of its seeding, and is therefore a trouble-
some weed ; another is the awned wheat grass, Triticimi caninum,
which is, along with several other species, indigenous to northern
latitudes. It will be seen, therefore, that taking the world over
there is no dearth of relatives of the wheat kind, not only in
cultivation but also in the wild, nor should we expect at this
date to find anywhere in nature species identical with strains
that have been cultivated and selected for more than a hundred
generations of man.

Barley. This, too, is one of the most ancient of cultivated
plants, coming down to our own day in three distant races,
recognized as species by the botanists : viz. the two-rowed,
Hordeuni distichon ; the common or four-rowed, Hordeiini
vulgare ; and the six-rowed, Hordeum hexastichon, the most
commonly cultivated in antiquity.

The two-rowed barley has been found wild in western Asia
'' from the Red Sea to the Caucasus and the Caspian," ^ though
whether feral or truly aboriginal cannot of course be told. This
barley has not been found in Egyptian monuments, but has been
found among the remains of the lake dwellers of Switzerland
before their use of metals, though the six-rowed variety seems
to have been more commonly cultivated then.

The common four-rowed barley is said to have been seen
growing wild in Mesopotamia, but it has been found neither in
Egyptian monuments nor in the lake dwellings.

On the other hand, the six-rowed barley was well known among
the ancients, being abundant in the lake dwellings of the early
stone age and in the earliest Egyptian monuments, as well as in
Italy during its bronze age. It is not known in the wild state.

1 " Origin of Cultivated Plants," p. 368.

246 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS

From all the facts Candolle draws this interesting inference :

" I. That the barleys with four and six rows were derived
from H. distichon, — the two-rowed sort, in prehistoric agri-
culture anterior to that of the ancient Egyptians who built
the monuments.

"2. That barleys with six and four ranks were species formerly
wild, extinct since the historical epoch." ^

>• Indian corn (Zea mays). This plant is often and most properly
called maize in written descriptions, because the word " corn "
is a general term for grain food. Thus "corn" in Bible times un-
doubtedly meant wheat, as it does in England to-day, or, at
most, it might have included barley, which, as we now know,
was a common grain among the Egyptians. With us, however,
the term " corn " is unalterably associated with the maize plant,
and we shall continue to follow the example of the New World
and apply this term to our most important grain crop.

By any count, all things considered, Indian corn is the most
important grain plant of the world, especially as food for
domestic animals. It has never been a favorite for the white
man, partly because it is inferior to wheat and partly because it
is so much used for animals.^

This is the only one of our grain plants that did not come to
us from the Old World. Like tobacco, potatoes, and the turkey,
it is truly an American product. When the Spaniards discovered
South America they found the Aztecs raising this crop freely,
and when our forefathers landed in New England the Indians
brought them corn to ward off starvation.

The mystery of it all is, where they got it, for nowhere on
the continent or in the world is any wild plant found growing
that might by any stretch of the imagination be called the

1 " Origin of Cultivated Plants," p. 370.

2 It seems to be a general principle that man will not freely eat the same
food that he gives his animals. We look upon corn as cattle and pig food,
and, while not unfit for human diet, yet it is not and will never become a favor-
ite. We have imported the cowpea from Asia, where it is used for human food,
but we feed it to cattle and do not think of eating it ourselves.

CULTIVATED GRAINS AND GRASSES 247

progenitor of Indian corn. All this strongly suggests that
the Indians themselves procured it from some former race like
the mound builders, which may not have been older than the
races from which the Aztecs developed. In any event the
origin of Indian cor-n is as much of a mystery as that of wheat,
except that we know precisely when and where it came into the
hands of the white man.^

This crop was the chief reliance of the Iroquois, or Six Nations,
of western New York. The squaws raised large crops of it,
which were stored in stockaded villages for protection against
thieves,^ and while the braves defended the stores and extermi-
nated their enemies, the squaws cleared more land and raised
more corn and apples.'"^

There are many evidences that corn is a comparatively new
species on the earth. One is the large number of giant grasses
found in the American tropics, many of which suggest a resem-
blance to maize, while others are clearly connected with broom
corn, which is a close relative. The other evidence of its newness
is its extreme variability not only in size but in the shape, location,
and character of the grain.

1 The Aztecs and Toltecs of Mexico and the Incas of Peru are not so very
old as we measure antiquity. They were in the bronze age of their develop-
ment at the time of the discovery of this continent by Europeans, as the North
American Indians were in the stone age ; but archeologists do not regard their
remains as running much, if any, back of the time of Christ, though what civili-
zation might have antedated them we have no means of knowing, except that
they left nothing behind that will compare in age with the lake dwellers of
Switzerland, the pyramid builders of Egypt, or the brickmakers of Babylon.

2 To protect this store of food fierce wars were waged with their neighbors,
and as offensive measures are always better than defensive, it became the custom
to send out each summer one or more parties of young braves to wage wars
of extermination on surrounding tribes. Nothing could stand against this alli-
ance of the Six Nations and their methods, and they made themselves felt
throughout all of eastern Canada, as far west as Illinois and as far south as the
Carolinas. It was the beginning of what would undoubtedly in time have
developed an Indian civilization if it had not been interrupted by the coming
of the white man. In this way a cultivated crop is the beginning of civilization.

^ The. farming of the Iroquois was not limited to corn. Remains of the old
Indian orchards may still be traced in the region of the lakes of western
New York.

248 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS

The kernel is generally borne upon an " ear " emerging from
a joint about halfway up the stalk, and the pollen is ripened on
a " tassel " at the top ; that is to say, the female flowers are in
one place and the male are in another.

In a few cases, however, stray kernels will be found on the
tassel (see Fig. 19), showing the presence of female flowers at
the top ; and more rarely will a short tassel be found on the end
of the ear, suggesting that the plant has but recently developed
from a branching stem bearing, like timothy, both male and
female flowers at the extremities. Of course pollen would fall
most successfully on the lower flowers, and it is easy to see how,
in time, a plant might develop like corn, with nearly all the lower
flowers female and nearly all the upper ones male.

The grain is also exceedingly variable, ranging from the rough
kernel of the " dent " to the smooth kernel of the " flint," and
from the common starchy field corn to the shriveled sweet corn
and the little pop corn of our gardens.

Another evidence of the newness of corn is its prompt and
complete response to selection in almost any desired direction.
In this way the color may be changed as well as the size of the
plant, the number and height of the ears upon the stalk, or
the width and shape of the leaves. Altogether it is an exceed-
ingly valuable and unusually interesting plant, and we owe our
Indian predecessors much gratitude for its preservation and
transmission to us.

Corn is not a plant well calculated to maintain itself in diffi-
cult surroundings or under a very wide variety of hard conditions,
so that, all things considered, it is not strange that this plant is
not found widely disseminated in the wild.

First of all, it needs almost ideal conditions for its successful
growth, and is easily killed out entirely. Again, the grain sepa-
rates with difficulty from the cob. It has neither wings for flight
nor means of burial in the ground, neither can it attach itself to
the hair or fur of animals for distribution. Moreover, it easily rots
in the same climatic conditions that are best adapted to its growth.

CULTIVATED GRAINS AND GRASSES 249

All things considered, it seems to be one of those plants that
developed in a small area affording peculiarly favorable condi-
tions, and, it is altogether probable, was never widely dissem-
inated in the wild. It could not have been known at all in the
ancient eastern world, or it would certainly have been cultivated,
even though the people of those times depended far less upon
grain and more upon pasture for maintaining their animals than
we do, and though corn could never make its way for human
food where wheat could be grown.

Oats. Two species of this grain are involved in the discussion,
the common oat {A vena sativd) and the side oat {Avena one?t-
talis), in which the grains are all upon one side of the head. This
grain can by no means boast the antiquity of wheat and barley.
It was grown by the ancient Greeks under the name of bromus,
and by the Latins as avena. It has been found in the later lake
dwellings of Switzerland (not very old), but it does not seem to
have been grown by either the ancient Egyptians or the Hebrews.

No other cultivated grain can so well maintain itself in the
uncultivated state, and for this reason oats have been found
growing wild in many separated regions of the world, but there
is little or no evidence that it is aboriginal in these places.

Besides these cultivated races, however, there are a number
of closely related wild species which interest us, because it is
possible that from such as these oats were originally had. In
America we have both Avena striata and Avena smithii, both
distinctly oatlike wild perennials. The Gartner brothers of
England, who are among the greatest improvers of the oat, have
imported a " wild oat " from eastern Asia, which is sufficiently
close to the common oat to cross with it and to afford foundation
for selection and ultimate improvement.

Rye {Secale cereale). Here at last we have a comparatively
new grain among us. Candolle says that it is not found in
Egyptian remains nor in those of the lake dwellers, that no
name for it exists in either the Semitic, Sanskrit, or Chinese
languages, and that the ancient Greeks did not know it.

250 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS '

As has been indicated, this is a plant that easily maintains
itself in the wild condition. That wild rye has been many times
discovered does not admit of a doubt, but, from the fact just
stated, this would not be conclusive evidence of its aboriginal state.

However this may be, according to the best authorities there
are no less than five or six closely related species growing wild
in western Asia and southeastern Europe, particularly in the
neighborhood of the Black and Caspian seas, leaving no doubt
of the identity of its wild relatives and of the approximate region
of its early cultivation.

Rice {Oryza sativa). At last we have a grain of ancient and
honorable standing that still exists truly in the wild state, where
it flourishes in the marshes of Cochin China. Being an aquatic
plant, it more easily maintains itself outside of cultivation than
can those species confined to the upland. ^

Rice undoubtedly originated in China, where it has been culti-
vated at least since 2000 b.c, and whence it spread to India
and gradually westward around the world. Candolle asserts, on
what he considers good authority, that a thousand years elapsed
between its cultivation in Babylon and its introduction into Syria,
another two or three hundred before it made its way into Egypt,
and it was not until 1468 that it was first cultivated in Italy. Its
introduction into the United States is said to date from 1694,
when a vessel from Madagascar put into a South Carolina port
in distress. From a little sack of rice on board, given to a resi-
dent, it rapidly spread over the state and afterward to Louisiana,
where its production has rapidly increased since the Civil War.

The history of this plant attracts attention to Zizania aquatica,
the Indian rice or water oats of our own country. This curious

1 The student must be impressed with the disadvantage under which wild
plants, as compared with wild animals, labor in maintaining themselves in the
original state. When the haunts of the wild are invaded by man, the animal
retreats to other and more remote regions, possibly better than those he has
been forced to abandon. The plant, on the other hand, being unable to move,
must stay and take the consequences, and, being the prey of both animals and
man, it is comparatively easily forced to extinction.

CULTIVATED GRAINS AND GRASSES 25 1

plant grows freely in the marshes and along the borders of our
northern lakes, where it constitutes the feeding grounds of our
wild geese in summer time. It is tall and vigorous, bearing a
heavy crop of large starchy seeds. These seeds were much
prized by the Indians, who gathered them in great quantities
for food, which fact would undoubtedly have led in due time
to its systematic cultivation.

Sorghum {Andropogon sorghum). This genus, Andropogon, with
its many and diverse species, is a great puzzle to botanists, run-
ning as it does by almost imperceptible gradations into the
genus Panicum, with its eight hundred and fifty or more species
scattered well over the world.

The cultivated sorghums are of two widely different sorts, the
commercial sugar-bearing sorghum, closely related to the sugar
cane {Sacchariim officinanim) and used mostly as a forage
plant ; and the nonsaccharine, to which belong broom corn ^ and
the various grain crops cultivated under the names Kafir corn,
durra (doura, dhourra, or dhoura), Milo maize, or Jerusalem corn.
Botanists quite frequently designate the saccharine sorghums as
Sorghum saccharatiim and the nonsaccharine as Sorghum vul-
gare, all of which illustrates their difficulties in attempting to
make a classification to fit the facts. The sorghums are of recent
introduction as cultivated plants. They are not found among the
remains of the lake dwellers or of the Egyptians. The name
is absent from Chinese literature until recent times. The Greeks
and Romans were unacquainted with the species, which are not
mentioned in the Old Testament.

The origin of the sorghums is not clearly established. By
many writers they have been credited to Asia, but the absence
from Sanskrit of any word to designate sorghum is held by
Candolle to argue against the assumption. When we add to this
the fact that nonsaccharine sorghums abound in equatorial Africa

1 It ought to be generally known that the great broom-corn districts of the
world are in eastern Kansas and in the region about Areola and Tuscola,
Illinois.

252 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS

in many species, we feel confident that we must refer the origin
of our sorghums to the dark continent,^ whence they spread first
to Egypt and afterward east, north, and west.

Sugar cane (Saccharum officinarum). This remarkable sugar-
bearing plant is only remotely related to the Sorghums. It is
cultivated to-day in all the equatorial regions of the earth, for
its sugar is a universal favorite, though it is of but compara-
tively recent introduction.

Its most ancient names are Sanskrit ^ (ikshu or ikshava). All
of its nearest related species grow wild in southeastern India,
the Malay Peninsula, and the outlying islands. Both these facts
indicate the origin to have been in Cochin China or thereabouts,
from which it spread first west with the India trade and after-
wards to China, where it appeared not much, if any, before the
time of Christ.^ The Greeks and Romans had heard of it as
calamus. The Hebrews were unacquainted with sugar, and to
them honey and the honeycomb were symbols of sweetness.
The Arabs introduced it into Spain, and from thence it made
its way to the West India islands (St. Domingo, 1520, and
Guadeloupe, 1644) and soon after became rapidly abundant.

Millet. This is a popular name for a great variety of useful
plants. First of all, it is often erroneously applied to the Asi-
atic cultivations of the various nonsaccharine sorghums already
mentioned.

Again it is applied to the pearl or cat-tail millet {Pcn7iisctJim
typhoideimi), to the foxtail millet (Setaria italica, the Paniciim

1 The writer saw growing ffeely in Brazil what would be taken anywhere to
be a broom corn with an inferior brush. I had no means of tracing its habitat,
but from the fact that broom corn was not only not cultivated in the neighbor-
hood, but brooms themselves were unknown, it had every semblance of being
indigenous. Granting even that to be true, we could not look upon South
America as the original source of broom corn because it was known in Egypt
before the discovery of this country.

2 " Origin of Cultivated Plants," p. 157.

8 The older Chinese writings are said to make no mention of it, which is
significant, because the universal appetite for sweets made it a favorite at once
upon acquaintance.

CULTIVATED GRAINS AND GRASSES 253

italicuni of Linnaeus, so commonly raised for hay), and to the
true or broom-corn millet (^Panicum miliaceum). These last
two are the millets of literature, and it is somewhat difficult to
keep them separated.

Millet has been cultivated as a food plant from great antiquity,
at least two .species being found common in the remains of the
oldest lake dwellers, which, it will be remembered, were in the
stone age. 5. italica is probably one of the five seeds sown by
the Chinese emperor at the annual public ceremony instituted
some 2700 B.C., in which he plows a furrow before the people
and scatters the five most important seeds therein, thus giving
public testimony and the highest official endorsement to the
importance of agriculture.

This Italian millet {S. italica) is the millet of ancient China,
which is almost certainly native in southeastern Asia, where its
related species abound, and whence it must have made its way
to Switzerland by a northern rather than by a southern route, as
it was unknown in Syria ; unless, indeed, it had a double origin,
as is not at all improbable when we compare with it our common
and abundant foxtail grass, the nearly related Setaria viridis,
which could readily be made into a valuable grain-bearing grass.

The other true millet was also known to the lake dwellers, and
from all accounts seems to have been native in southwestern
Asia, possibly in the Egyptian side of Arabia.

Buckwheat {Polygonum fagopyrum). This useful grain is men-
tioned here quite out of its place, for it is in no way related to the
grasses. It is a relative of the smartweeds, which, together with
still closer relatives, grow freely over the northern United States.

The original of our common buckwheat grows wild in Man-
churia, on the banks of the Amur River, and two or three related
but inferior species, such as the Tartary buckwheat, are wild in
Tartary and Siberia. From here it made its way into Europe,
following the former species which had been introduced by way
of Tartary and Russia during the Middle Ages (about 1400),
under the name of Saracen wheat, a name that long confused

2 54 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS

authorities as to its nativity. The point was only recently cleared
up and the true origin of this grain established in Manchuria,
all of which tallies well with the fact that it was apparently
unknown to the prehistoric people either of Europe or of Asia.

Timothy {Phleum pretense). This plant, so familiar to farmers
as the great hay grass, is the same as the herd's grass of New
England. It is native in Europe, as the small and related Phletim
alpinum, or mountain timothy, is native to the higher latitudes
and the upper levels of the northern Appalachian Mountains.

This great hay ^ grass is at best only semidomesticated, for it
has never been systematically '' improved," as have wheat, corn,
and almost all the grain crops, so that only one variety exists.

Blue grass (Poa pratensis) (Kentucky blue grass, June grass,
spear grass, etc.), like timothy, is raised in pretty much its orig-
inal condition. It is native throughout the hilly lands of east-
ern United States from Pennsylvania westward, whence it has
crept as far west as Iowa and Kansas and as far south as Ten-
nessee, below which it does not seem to thrive. Like timothy it
has never been improved and exists in but one variety, though it
is very variable and there are more than eighty related species.

Redtop (Agrostis vulgaris), often called bent grass, is another
wildling among the grasses, and some of the best redtop
meadows are self-seeded. Most of the redtop seed of the world
is produced in three or four counties of southern Illinois, show-
ing that it is only fairly coming into domestication. It grows
native in southern United States, over widely scattered regions
both high and low, but only in the latter does it make growth
enough to be of value.

1 Timothy is unsuited for pasture because it grows a little bulb just under
ground. If pastured when young, this little bulb will not form, in which case
the sod will not endure ; and if pastured after haying, the stock will soon learn
to pull up and eat this bulb. This is what causes many farmers to wonder why
their cattle thrived so well on stubble pasture in dry weather, when grass does
not grow. It is also the reason why the meadow next year is a disappoint-
ment; the plants have been pulled up and killed. Timothy should not be
pastured when it has been recently mowed, that is, stock should not be turned
upon timothy meadows immediately after haying.

CULTIVATED GRAINS AND GRASSES 255

Orchard grass {Dactylis glomerata). This curious and very
striking grass, grown but rarely, is a native of Europe, but is
now found, according to BeaV in North Africa, India, and
North America. It is widely scattered but never popular, largely
because of its bunchy habit of growth, its coarse stem and leaf,
and its habit of crowding out other grasses but failing to com-
pletely occupy the ground itself. It ripens with clover, and be-
cause of its habit last mentioned it is better grown with that crop
than grown alone.

The Festucas. This useful genus of grasses, too little known
by American farmers, covers some eighty species growing wild
in the cooler regions of the Old World. The most common
and well-known species are the large Festnca elatior, or tall
fescue (pronounced fes'ku), making excellent hay as well as
pasture ; Festiica pratensis, or meadow fescue, much like the
above only slightly shorter ; and the little bunchy Festnca ovina,
or sheep's fescue, of slight value except that it will grow in
shady places, making a better sod in groves than will any other
known grass. These grasses are much esteemed in England,
but not yet extensively cultivated in this country, where we have
scarcely commenced to realize the variety and value of many
native grasses, not to mention the less-known introduced sorts.
Neither timothy, blue grass, redtop, orchard grass, nor f estuca
is mentioned by Candolle in his history of the origin of our cul-
tivated plants. This must have been clearly an oversight, as
they were all in common use long before the date of his writ-
ings (1882). The best book on our own grasses, native and cul-
tivated, is ''Grasses of North America," by Dr. W. J. Beal of
Michigan Agricultural College.

Miscellaneous grasses. The list of grasses that have been of
use to man, and that have more or less come under cultivation,
is too long for even mention here. Some of them, like wheat,
oats, and sugar cane, are as fully domesticated as corn, while
others, like the bamboo, are equally useful but rarely cultivated.

1 " Grasses of North America," p. 109.

256 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS

In addition to all these should be mentioned that horde of wild
things growing together and constituting such great natural pas-
tures as the original prairie range of our own western states and
their equivalent on the pampas of South America. Unfortunately
none of these native prairie grasses has been domesticated, and
most or all of them seem on the road to early extinction. This
seems a pity, especially when we recall the fact that neither tim-
othy, blue grass, nor redtop, nor yet any of the English grasses,
seems fully adapted to the soil and climate of our prairie states.
England is the great home of grasses, native and introduced.
Its moist, cool climate is especially favorable to the hay and
pasture grasses. The tall oat, sweet vernal, and the more use-
ful festucas are all well known and all have been long recovered
from the wild. We should do as much for our native grasses,
and fame if not fortune awaits the man who will develop from
American native varieties even one really good hay or pasture
grass suited to our conditions.

CHAPTER XIX

ORIGIN OF THE CULTIVATED LEGUMES

Clover • Alfalfa • The lentil • The bean • The pea • The vetch • The lupine •
The soy bean • The cowpea

A certain class of valuable plants is known as legumes. The
distinguishing botanical trait of legumes is that they bear their
seeds in pods, like peas and beans. The pod may be large and
straight as in these familiar species, small and inconspicuous as
in clover, or spiral-shaped as in alfalfa. In all cases, however,
the seeds, whether large or small, resemble beans in splitting
readily into two equal parts, unlike corn or wheat or the seeds
of the grasses generally.

The physiological distinction of leguminous plants is a very
peculiar one, and one that is unknown in plants outside this
particular family. It is this : there will nearly always be found
growing on the roots of all legumes little nodules or warts called
tubercles. These tubercles vary in size and shape from those
of the red clover, which are not so large as the head of a
pin, up to those of the soy bean, which are as large as a
small pea.

These tubercles are really the home of millions of microscopic
plants called bacteria, which are parasitic upon the legume ; that
is to say, they depend upon the host plant for food, and to
that extent they are a disadvantage. This disadvantage is, how-
ever, more than offset by their exceeding usefulness in the
matter of fertility.

The agricultural distinction of the legumes generally is that
the bacteria within these tubercles have the power of taking the
free nitrogen of the air and putting it into combinations that
may be used as food for plants generally, a property that is not

257

258 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS

possessed, so far as we know, by any other form of life. When
the student comes to reaUze, by the study of the fertility problem,
the difficulty encountered by farmers in getting sufficient nitro-
gen into the soil for profitable growth of crops, then the real
value of legumes as the only natural and cheap source of nitrogen
will be fully appreciated.^

The nutritive significance of legumes lies in the high nitrogen
and mineral content of both the grain and the stem. As the
grasses are notable for their carbon content in the form of either
starch or oil, so the legumes are remarkable for their nitrogen
and mineral content, especially the former. The exceeding
rarity of nitrogen gives it a high value for animal food as well
as for fertility, all of which goes to make the legumes, agricul-
turally speaking, the most distinctive family of plants ever do-
mesticated.2 They make an ideal food for growing animals and
a fair substitute for meat in the diet of man ; indeed, wherever
in the earth man has lived with little or no flesh food he has
drawn the more heavily upon the seeds of legumes.

Clover. Under this general name are grouped a variety of
species more or less closely related.

I. Trifolium pratense, the common red clover, sometimes
called purple clover or meadow trefoil, the latter from its three-
parted leaf.

1 Nitrogen costs in the markets, in the form of commercial fertilizers, ap-
proximately fifteen cents a pound everywhere, but can be produced by legumes
in the proper rotation for next to nothing.

2 It is sometimes necessary to " inoculate " for the growth of legumes ; that
is, to apply the proper bacteria. The bacteria are not the same for different
species of legumes. For example, the clover tubercle will not develop on the
alfalfa nor that of the pea upon the bean. If the particular species, say alfalfa,
has never before been grown in a locality, its specific bacteria will likely not
be present, in which case the tubercles will not form and no nitrogen will be
taken from the air, such a plant becoming a heavy nitrogen consumer instead
of a nitrogen producer. Inoculation then becomes necessary, for if the tuber-
cles do not form, the legume is very exhaustive to land instead of benefiting
it, and ultimately itself dies of nitrogen starvation. Inoculation is generally
effected by scattering over the surface a little soil taken from a field in which
the same legume has grown with well-developed tubercles. One to one and a
half bushels per acre is sufficient if evenly applied.

ORIGIN OF THE CULTIVATED LEGUMES 259

2. Tnfolium medium, the mammoth, giant, or pea-vine clover,
similar to the above, but with a growth so heavy that the stems
no longer stand erect but lie creeping on the ground.

3. Trifoliiim repens, the common white or Dutch clover, grow-
ing wild in pastures everywhere in the northern United States
and never cultivated.

4. Tnfolium hybridiim, the common alsike, similar to the
above only larger, with a stronger stem and a touch of pink in
the blossom, grown freely on moist ground for hay.

5. Tnfolitim incarnatum, the crimson or Italian clover; a
short erect species with a long, beautiful scarlet " head," mak-
ing a small quantity of good hay but rarely used by American
farmers, as the yield is low.

These clovers are all leguminous plants and all serve the
same purpose as soil restorers so far as nitrogen is concerned.
The farmers' choice therefore turns on the question of yield
and general usefulness.

This rules out white clover as a cultivated crop, but it has no
difficulty in maintaining itself as a wild plant, ^ to the great ad-
vantage of our self-sown native pastures.

The scarlet clover is but recently introduced into cultivation.
According to Candolle it exists wild in Gallicia, in Biscaya and
Catalonia, as also in Sardinia, in Algiers, and in the valley of the
Danube, in some of which places it may have been introduced
since cultivation. It is surely indigenous in the neighborhood
of the Pyrenees and also along the coast of Cornwall, where it
is associated with a yellow variety which is truly wild also on
the continent.2

This shows how the process of domestication is sometimes
long deferred, and may even be abandoned if, after trial, the
species is not found worthy, as will more than likely be the
case with this particular clover.

1 In this respect it rivals Kentucky blue grass, with which it is often asso-
ciated, an association clearly advantageous to the blue grass, whose supply of
nitrogen is thereby bfetter assured. ^ « Origin of Cultivated Plants," p. 106.

26o DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS

T. pratense and its nearly related form, T. medium, merge
together in literature ; indeed, the latter is to be regarded as
little more than a variety of the other, to which botanists have
given a specific name more for convenience than from necessity.
Neither of these, however, has been long cultivated. T. pratense
grows wild throughout Europe, in Algeria, in Asia Minor, and
in southeastern Siberia. It must have been long known to the
people of Europe, but its first known introduction into cultiva-
tion was in Flanders in the sixteenth century, from which it
made its way into England in 1630, through the efforts of the
Earl of Portland, then Lord Chancellor.^ There is no San-
skrit or other Aryan name either for clover, sainfoin, or alfalfa,
from which Candolle concludes that these people maintained no
artificial meadows.

Clover is then a new thing just out of the wild, and ready,
indeed waiting, for the hand of the improver. Its many related
species and their wide natural range lend confidence to the hope
that out of this new and fresh material may arise most valuable
varieties for agricultural purposes.
> Alfalfa (Medicago sativa), variously known also as lucern,
French clover, purple medic, Chilean clover, Spanish trefoil, etc.
has been long cultivated in western United States, where it was
introduced by the Spanish in an early day. It was tried a few
generations ago in New England and the eastern states along
with other European " grasses," quite naturally bearing its
French name, lucern. It did not, however, succeed. The gen-
eral conclusion at that time was that this "child of the sun"
required a deep, loose, sandy subsoil and was unable to thrive
on the somewhat stiff clays of that region.

However, it gradually worked eastward from the Far West,
jumping the Great American Desert with some difficulty and
delay, and finally, after all these centuries, was a few years ago
well introduced into Mississippi valley agriculture, where it easily
outyields any forage crop known, commonly affording three

1 " Origin of Cultivated Plants," p. 105.

ORIGIN OF THE CULTIVATED LEGUMES 26 1

cuttings whose total weight ranges from four to as high as five
or six tons per acre.

We know now that the early failures of this plant were due
not to clay subsoils but to the absence of its characteristic bac-
terium, without which it could not draw upon the free nitrogen
of the air ; thus it was thrown, like other crops, back upon the
supply contained within the soil, which is insufficient, except in
rare cases, to afford material for so heavy a feeder as this crop.^

This reason for its failure in the eastern states is supported
by the fact that a few individual plants always succeeded. These
were the ones that sprang from seeds which happened to have
had a little of the inoculation from the soil in which the crop had
been growing. Alfalfa, however, is a " clean-seeded crop." But
little seed is sown, and it would take many years to establish so
vigorous a feeder by the natural means of infection. The eastern
farmers gave it up too soon. The Kansas people persisted till
they succeeded, though it took a generation. Fortunately for
Illinois and the upper Mississippi valley, when the attempt was
made there Dr. Hopkins of the University of Illinois succeeded
in showing that the question of success or failure turned upon
the presence or absence of the characteristic bacteria. After
having conclusively shown this, he secured a ton of soil from
an old alfalfa field in Kansas. With this he thoroughly inocu-
lated an acre of the university farm, and from this all Illinois
and much neighboring territory have been inoculated and the
culture of this wonderful plant successfully introduced for the
first time in the Middle West without the usual and otherwise
necessary delay of waiting for the slow inoculation from seed
and the long-continued failures necessarily involved.^

1 Alfalfa growing without inoculation is, of course, a nitrogen consumer, and
as it lives for seven or eight years it will, long before that time, exhaust the
nitrogen of most soils and die of starvation.

2 Curiously enough it was learned that wherever, the closely related plant,
Melilotiis alba, or sweet clover, grew wild no inoculation was necessary, and
later it was discovered that soil taken from a sweet-clover spot would success-
fully inoculate for alfalfa, the first and only instance known in which the bac-
teria of one species will grow upon another. Whether the bacteria are identical

262 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS

Though this newest of our crops did not come into our own
agriculture until approximately the opening of the twentieth
century, it is, after all, the oldest and most anciently known of all
our leguminous forage plants, excepting only the cowpea and
soy bean, which are used mainly for their seeds. Alfalfa was
known to the Greeks and Persians, who called it medica because
it had been brought from Media at the time of the Persian War
(470 B.C.), though it apparently did not come into general culti-
vation until the first or second century after Christ.

Candolle^ has no hesitation in affirming that alfalfa is wild
in several provinces to the south of the Caucasus, in various
parts of Persia, in Afghanistan, Beluchistan, and Kashmir. Its
seeming nonintroduction into China and India is a mystery,
explainable only on the theory that the people preferred the
plants that bore heavy seeds, or that they neglected it for
some unknown reason akin to that which evidently deterred the
Aryans from developing cultivated meadows.

The student will not fail to be impressed with the remarkable
significance of the fact that this oldest of all the cultivated for-
age plants should have been the last to be introduced into our
own agriculture, nor will he fail to note the scientific basis for
the failure of our first attempts, which, had they been successful,
might have greatly influenced the development of the eastern
and the middle states.

The lentil. This plant is evidently a puzzle to the botanists,
by whom it is variously designated as Ervum lens, Lens esculenta,
and sometimes it is put in the genus Cicer. This confusion is
probably due in part to the fact that the plant has been long
cultivated. It has already been remarked that man, when main-
taining himself with a small amount of animal food, quickly
turns to seeds of legumes as a source of nitrogen.

or only closely related is not yet known, but the student should understand
that the sweet clover, though classified as a distinct species and in a different
genus, is after all, in many respects, almost indistinguishable from alfalfa, es-
pecially in its earlier stages of growth.
1 " Origin of Cultivated Plants," p. 103.

ORIGIN OF THE CULTIVATED LEGUMES 263

This probably accounts for the early cultivation of the lentil,
which is one of the oldest of the legumes. It was cultivated by
the later lake dwellers (bronze age) of Switzerland, was known
by both the Greeks and Romans, and is mentioned freely in the
Old Testament. Without a doubt Esau's famous mess of pottage
was a dish of lentils. ^ This plant does not seem to have entered
into Anglo-Saxon agriculture, and in many respects seems on
the road to abandonment.

» The bean (Phaseolus vulgaris) ^ commonly called the haricot or
kidney bean, was early credited to Asia. Candolle has shown,
however, that it has not been found in the lake dwellings and
that it was absent from the collection of leguminous seeds found
by Virchow in the excavations at Troy, which included not only
the common garden pea but the broad bean. He also calls atten-
tion to the absence of any name for the bean in either Hebrew,
Sanskrit, or Chinese, and adds that there are no evidences of its
use in ancient Egypt.^

It has never been found wild in any country, and its origin
seemed a mystery until somewhat recently, when several varieties
of the true haricot bean were found in some Peruvian tombs
near Lima. These tombs may not antedate the Spanish invasion,
but this find, together with the fact that some fifty related species
are American ^ and not one European, leads Candolle to conclude

1 See Genesis xxv. Also " Origin of Cultivated Plants," p. 322.

2 This must not be confused with the broad bean belonging to another
species, Fada vulgai-is or Vicia faba, which in turn is not to be confused with
the Lima bean {Phaseolus hinatus), also native to South America, where its
wild congeners abound in the Amazon basin and central Brazil, whence it was
probably introduced by the slave trade into Africa where it now abounds. The
true broad bean exists alone in the genus Faba, and is not mentioned by Gray
in his manual of American plants, wild or cultivated. It is the common bean
of Europe, a small-seeded variety of which was grown by the lake dwellers in
their bronze age and by the ancient Egyptians, though no specimens are found,
a fact thought to be due to their being considered unclean by the priests.
Candolle considers this plant to have had a double center of development, one
about the Caspian Sea, the other in northern Africa, such double domestication
being frequent. See " Origin of Cultivated Plants," pp. 316-321.

3 Several of these near relatives grow wild in North America, a number
of them being native to Illinois ; for example, Phaseolus perennis, Phaseolus

264 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS

that the bean is a South American contribution, a conclusion
that is strengthened by the fact that shortly after the Spanish
discovery the bean was mentioned almost simultaneously in
several widely separated regions of the Old World.

Candolle sums up as follows : ^ " (i) Phaseohis vulgaris has
not been long cultivated in India, the southwest of Asia, and
Egypt ; (2) it is not certain that it was known in Europe be-
fore the discovery of America ; (3) at this epoch the number
of varieties suddenly increased in European gardens and all
authors commenced to mention them ; (4) the majority of the
species of the genus exist in South America ; (5) seeds appar-
ently belonging to the species have been discovered in Peru-
vian tombs of an uncertain date, intermixed with many species,
all American."

--. The pea. This familiar plant exists in two species of interest
to agriculture :

1, The field pea {Pisum amense), grown both for its seed
and its forage as stock food. This species undoubtedly grows
wild in the Mediterranean countries, possibly also in the south
of Russia, and has been only recently introduced into cultivation.

2. The garden pea {Pisum sativum), generally ranked as a
separate species, but more than likely developed from the above
by cultivation ; at any rate it has been longer known to cultiva-
tion than has the less-improved field pea. It was cultivated by
both the Greeks and the Romans, and a small-seeded variety
has been found in the lake dwellings of Switzerland and Savoy
(age of bronze). There seems to be no indication of its ancient
cultivation in either P2gypt or India.

•3^ The vetch {Vicia sativa)^ or tare, a leguminous plant closely
related to the pea, is wild over nearly all of Europe, in Algeria,
and in Asia Minor, as are several related species, especially
Vicia americana, in this country.

diversi/olius, Phaseohis helvolus, and Phaseolus paucijlorus. See (iray under
Phaseolus.

1 " Origin of Cultivated Plants," p. 343.

ORIGIN OF THE CULTIVATED LEGUMES 265

Vetches were sown by the Romans, as they are now by the
EngHsh, as cattle food, but there is no evidence of ancient
cultivation.

The lupine {Lupinus albus). This legume was cultivated by the
ancient Greeks and Romans as cattle food, but, though it grows
wild in many varieties in various parts of the world, including
our own country, it has not been largely brought into use, and
now it shows every sign of passing out of cultivation. ^

The soy bean (Dolichos soja). This is a new crop to the west-
ern world ; indeed, its introduction is but just being effected.
It came to us from Japan, where, as in China, it has been culti-
vated from the remotest antiquity for human food. It is certainly
wild in Japan and most likely also in the regions to the south,
where related species flourish even in the island of Java. The
crop is commonly called the soja, or soy bean, but it more closely
resembles the pea, while the so-called cowpea is more like a
bean. With us the crop is used exclusively for stock food, both
grain and forage being useful.

The cowpea [Dolichos chinensis). This and the above species
are giving the botanists much trouble. They are here put into
the same genus, but they are being moved about so much, some-
times together and sometimes separated, that it is difficult to
keep track of them. There perhaps is a growing disposition to
separate them, but they are here put in the same genus awaiting
the final decision of the botanists.

All this, however, does not concern us now further than
to show that lines on which classification is based are often

1 The student can hardly reahze how rapidly species are recovered from the
wild, cultivated for a time, and then abandoned for something better or at least
for something else. Thus Darwin tells us, " Animals and Plants under Domes-
tication," Vol. I, p. 336, quoting Heer, that the wheat of the lake dwellers in the
early stone age was a small-headed variety with grains not half the size of
modern wheat. This lasted down to the " Helvetico-Roman age and then
became extinct," giving place to better races in turn, up to the latest improved
and best yielding varieties. It appears, too, that in general these ancient grains
were inferior to the modern, whether wheat, barley, oats, or what not, and that
with cultivation has been associated a steadily progressive development.

266 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS

indistinct and difficult to establish, and to prepare the student
for seeing both of these species described under various names.
The cowpea has been recently introduced into our southern
states from China, where it has been cultivated as human food
from great antiquity. Like the soy bean this crop is fed freely
to live stock in our country and consequently neither is used as
human food.^

1 Man has a strange aversion to consuming the safne grain he feeds his
stock, and he positively refuses to eat it if it be^a recent importation. The
first question asked of a new food plant is this : " Is it for man or animal ? "
without thinking it may be good for both ; but the question once answered, the
future of the thing is settled. This is why all efforts to introduce Indian corn
into Europe to replace rye as human food have failed in the past and are likely
to continue to fail in the future. Even the pauper resists what he considers to
be putting him on a level with the animals.

CHAPTER XX

ORIGIN OF CULTIVATED FRUITS ^

The apple • The pear • The plum • The sour cherry • The peach • The

apricot -The orange and the lemon • The banana • The pineapple • The

grape • The strawberry • The raspberry • The blackberry • The melon .

Miscellaneous fruits

The list of fruits is an exceedingly long one. What we popu-
larly call a fruit is, in general, not the seed, but rather the fleshy
developed parts about the seed or seeds. For example, in the
apple the whole pericarp or seed envelope takes on an extreme
development, entirely and somewhat uniformly surrounding the
seed capsules with a juicy fleshy growth. In the strawberry it
is the receptacle on which the mass of seeds is attached that
develops into the edible part. In the raspberry each individual
seed is surrounded by a juicy growth similar to that of the peach,
while the receptacle is left behind as the fruit leaves it, like a
cap comes off the head. In the blackberry each seed develops
its fleshy envelope, like the raspberry, but the receptacle comes
off with the fruit, as in the strawberry.

*" The apple (Malus malus). This best of all the fruits has
been long in cultivation, specimens of several varieties having
been found in the remains of the lake dwellers, previous to the
bronze age. These were small fruits, however, measuring only
from an inch to an inch and a quarter in diameter and undoubt-
edly gathered from the wild. The fruit has therefore improved
somewhat since these days, certainly in size and most likely in
flavor as well.

The apple was cultivated by the Greeks under the name of
melon and by the Latins as malus, clearly the same name ;»but

1 See " Principles of Breeding," chapter on Mutation ; also " Evolution of
our Native Fruits," by Bailey.

267

268 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS

the Basque sagara indicates a name independent of Aryan influ-
ence. Being an ancient Iberian people, the inference is warranted
that the apple was cultivated there before the Aryan invasion.

Candolle makes the broad statement that the apple grows
wild " throughout Europe, excepting in the extreme north," as
well as to the south of the Caucasus and certain districts of
Persia. At Trebizond, in Asiatic Turkey, the botanist Bourgeau
is reported to have seen "quite a small forest" of apples, and
there is good reason to believe that the tree grows wild in the
mountainous parts of northwestern India.

The readiness with which the apple escapes from cultivation
and " runs wild " makes it difficult to set original limits to its
habitat, but botanists and fruit men are quite agreed, I think,
that this great fruit is a native of southeastern Europe and the
contiguous regions.

Besides the malus proper we have the wild crab apples, grow-
ing in various parts of the north-temperate regions. The Siberian
crab {Pynis baccatd) has not only been semidomesticated, but has
been hybridized with the common apple, giving Pyrus pnmifolia,
with a foliage, as the name indicates, resembling that of the
plum. In this connection it ought to be remarked that the crab
apples of all species and varieties are inferior to the common
apple, fit only for cooking, or eating fresh when nothing better
is available. The foliage and bloom, however, are so abundant
and so beautiful that the crab has become a favorite tree for
ornamental planting.

America has no less than five native apples, all crabs. ^ The
largest of these is the Oregon crab, which ranges from northern
California to Alaska, and is a real tree, often reaching a height

1 " Evolution of our Native Fruits," pp. 249-273. This fascinating book is one
of Bailey's best, and should find a place on the shelves of every school library.
It gives a full account of the wild native fruits of North America, and is not
onljt a mine of information but a source of inspiration as well. Its reading
cannot fail to inspire the student through the wealth of natural resources in
plant life, and it is fortunate that the study could be made in America before,
as in the rest of the world, it should be too late.

ORIGIN OF CULTIVATED FRUITS 269

of forty feet. The fruit is three fourths of an inch or less in
diameter, is often gathered by the Indians, and was used by the
early settlers in making jelly.

Two species of wild crab are found in the Mississippi valley
and eastward, one in the north (Pyrjis coronafid) and one in the
south {Pyrus aligns tif olid), one in the prairie states westward
{Py7iis loensis), and another known as the Soulard crab, named
from the originator, J. G. Soulard of Galena, Illinois. The origr
inal was discovered in an apple thicket near St. Louis and sent to
Mr. Soulard, who propagated it by grafting in a crab. Whether
it is a mutant or chance seedling from real native stock, or
whether it is a hybrid with the common apple, is not of course
known, but is generally, I think, considered as the latter.

These apples are used only for cooking, especially jelly mak-
ing, and occasionally for cider. They will not compare in quality
with the Pyrus mains, although it should be understood that
this species is propagated only by grafts, the seedlings being in
most cases worthless.

The Indians made what use they could of the wild apple, and
upon the advent of the white man adopted the common apple
and made much of it, both in North and South America,
where remains of old Indian orchards still exist, even in so old
a region as western New York.

The pear {Pyrus communis). This fruit grows wild over the
whole of temperate Europe and western Asia, and its closely
related species, Pyrtcs sinensis, extends into Mongolia and Man-
churia. In its native country it grows as a forest tree, particularly
in France, where the greatest improvement has been effected,
and from whence most of our best varieties have come. America
has no native pear.

This fruit was cultivated by the Greeks and Romans and
occasionally gathered with other wild fruits by the lake dwellers^
but there is no evidence that it was cultivated by ancient peoples.
^ The plum. Of this favorite fruit we have two broadly differ-
ent strains, the European {Pmnus domestica), and the American

.270 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS

{Prunus americana), with its variations, from which many of our
best cultivated varieties are descended.

Plums were cultivated by the Romans, but were not known
to the lake dwellers or other ancient people. They have been
cultivated, too, in China from early times, but the original stock
has not been certainly identified, though related species grew
wild in the neighborhood of the Caucasus and in the western
forests of the Chinese empire.

The plum was native in all the northern United States, and
every pioneer has satisfied his "fruit tooth" and graced his table
many times from the stock found growing along the river bottoms
everywhere. Strangely enough, according to Bailey,^ our best
authority, no commercial variety has ever been developed from
northern native stock east of Michigan, but the wild plums to
the south and west have been prolific of good varieties. This
was probably because the cultivated European sorts succeeded
well in the north, making resort to the wild unnecessary, while
from Virginia south they were not satisfactory. Here resort was
naturally back to the wild. Thus necessity is the mother not
only of invention but of domestication as well. The Miner was
produced in Tennessee ; the Robinson in North Carolina ; the
Wayland "came up" in a plum thicket in Kentucky; the Golden
Beauty was " found wild " in Texas ; the Pottawattamie in Ten-
nessee ; and the Newman in Kentucky. The Wolf originated from
seed gathered from wild trees in Iowa, and the Rollingstone was
" found " on the banks of Rollingstone Creek in Minnesota.^

Every boy knows that certain trees or bushes produce nuts
or fruits much better than others of the same species. Every
neighborhood that grows wild fruit of any kind has its trees
or bushes which yield fruit of superior size or flavor, or both.
It is from such as these that many new varieties have sprung,
a fact to be borne in mind when we come to the discussion of
mutation later on.

1 "Evolution of our Cultivated Fruits," p. 170.

2 " Principles of Breeding," p. 133.

ORIGIN OF CULTIVATED FRUITS 27 1

The sour cherry {Prunus cerasus). The student will not fail to
notice the close relationship granted the plums and the cherries
in putting these seemingly very different fruits in the same genus.
This illustrates one of the troubles of the botanists, for there also
belong in the same goodly company the chokecherries and the
wild, black, and red cherries, that grow upon branching stems
like currants.

While America has some of these so-called wild cherries,
they have never yielded to attempts at amelioration, and we are
dependent upon foreign species for our fruits.

The species given above is undoubtedly a native of Asia Minor,
in the neighborhood of the Caspian, and its allied species, the
bird cherry (Prunus avium), from which our white and black
varieties are developed, is wild in Persia and the hilly regions to
the west as far even as Algeria. We will not enter into the dis-
pute as to whether these two species are distinct, or whether the
former has been developed from the latter, such discussions
having lost much of their interest in recent days, since we have
learned how quickly new forms may rise from others and pre-
sent differences that any botanist, not knowing the history, would
call specific.

Curiously enough, the cherry succeeds wonderfully as an
ornamental plant in Japan, where it flowers profusely but
rarely fruits.

^ The peach {Amygdalus persica). This delicious fruit is a
strange customer in our orchards. A kind of mean between a
bush and a tree, it yields one of the most toothsome fruits
known to the palate. Its strangeness consists in its relation to
another fruit, the nectarine, which closely resembles the peach,
except that instead of the downy covering, it is smooth like
the plum.

The strange part of it is that peaches and nectarines often
grow upon the same tree ; that is, a tree or a part of a tree
that has always borne peaches may suddenly begin to bear nec-
tarines, after which it may produce either peaches or nectarines.

272 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS

If these nectarines be planted, the seed will produce not peaches,
as a rule, but nectarines.^

This observation of Darwin's, early confirmed by later obser-
vations, came at a time when botanists, after much discussion,
had about decided to put the nectarine in a separate species from
the peach. The fact, however, that nectarines are often pro-
duced on the same tree with peaches, and often by a limb that
in other years also grows peaches, — this fact, when clearly
proved, put a stop to the discussion, and not only ended a puz-
zling debate, but showed also that specific lines cannot always
be clearly drawn. The nectarine is therefore recognized as a
sport, or, more properly, a mutant of the peach, because it
arises not once but many times from that fruit. Incidentally
we learn by this that new strains may arise from old stock
repeatedly, and that certain combinations of plant and animal
characters are constantly giving off new strains or species ^
represented by essentially new combinations.

As indicated by the name, the peach has been generally
credited to Persia, from whence it was introduced into European
cultivation shortly after the beginning of the Christian era.^
This is not, however, proof of its Persian origin, neither is the
fact of its being found wild in many districts of western Asia ;
for, like the orange, it easily escapes, and when it does so the
seedlings are exceedingly inferior.

As no name for the peach is found either in Hebrew or San-
skrit, Candolle is inclined to give the peach a Chinese origin,
consigning it to that limbo of all unknown and untraceable
things, central Asia.

1 " Animals and Plants under Domestication," Vol. I, p. 361.

2 The term " species " is here used not in its narrow biological sense, but
in the wider sense of strains that are sufficiently constant to breed among
themselves.

8 It is notable that the very ancient people seemed to have confined their
agriculture to the production of necessary grains, and that the luxury of fruits
and toothsome delicacies belonged to later times and more luxurious living
generally.

ORIGIN OF CULTIVATED FRUITS 273

Darwin, however, presents some excellent arguments for
assuming that the peach is exceedingly new upon the earth,
and possibly has never been truly wild, but developed from
the almond {Amygdaliis commtmis), which grows wild, or half
wild, in the warmer regions of the Mediterranean and in western
Asia. This argument is extremely fascinating, and even more
convincing now than in the days when it was first presented.
It is too long to be repeated here, and should be read in the
original.^ Briefly, he finds that the space between the almond
and its near relative, the peach, is not wide, and is often, more-
over, nearly bridged by inferior specimens of the seedling peach.
Not only is this true but occasionally the almond will bear un-
usually fleshy fruit approaching a poor peach. Evidently the
whole group — peaches, nectarines, and almonds — is an ex-
ceedingly miscellaneous lot, not yet having settled down into
distinctive lines, if, indeed, they ever do become fixed and
measurably inflexible. In any event, until then they will con-
tinue to bother the botanist.

The apricot {Prumis armeniaca). The apricot is related to
the plum somewhat as the peach is to the nectarine, with two
important differences. The apricot is essentially a plum with a
downy covering, as the nectarine is a peach with the covering
off ; but the smooth form is the more common in the plum, as
the downy peach is more common than the smooth nectarine.
Again, the apricot is known in the wild state as a distinct self-
perpetuating species. No man has detected a mutation either
way between the apricot and the plum, and yet the consistent
evolutionist must recognize the same fundamental relations be-
tween the two, except that in the case of the apricot and the
plum the mutant is able to maintain itself indefinitely as a
distinct species, which clearly the nectarine is unable to do,
although nectarine seeds produce nectarines freely. The strain
is evidently an erratic one, not easily maintained in nature for

1 "Animals and Plants under Domestication," Vol. I, pp. 358-360.

274 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS

any considerable length of time, and would soon become extinct
were it not constantly renewed. Whether the apricot is a mu-
tant from the plum, or the reverse, we could now only speculate,
but from general reasoning we should regard the apricot as the
original stock and the plum the mutant.^

' The orange and the lemon. These two popular tropical fruits
belong to a tangled group covered by the generic name Citrus,
and including also the lime and the shaddock. While their
original has not been identified in the wild, their origin is uni-
versally credited to eastern Asia, probably China. The principal
strains of this genus are as follows :

The citron {Citrus me die a proper), a large nonspherical fruit
with an aromatic rind and a moderate amount of not very acid
juice.

The shaddock, or grapefruit {Citrus deeumana), large and
round, juicy, slightly acid, extensively cultivated in southern
Asia and in the tropics generally.

The lemon {Citrus mediea limonum), juice decidedly acid.

The lime {Citrus mediea aeida), like the lemon, but much
smaller ; juice very acid.

The orange {Citrus aurantium), in two varieties, bitter and
sweet, of which the latter is the cultivated, and of which the
tangerine and the mandarin are minor strains distinguished by
the easily separated rind, and for this reason often called " kid-
glove oranges."

The citrous fruits have a pronounced acid quality and a lurking
tendency to be bitter, a tendency that crops out strongest in the
bitter orange, which is wild, and in the shaddock, which is culti-
vated.2 These fruits have been long in cultivation, as fruits go,

1 This is because the mutant is more commonly destitute of some character
that is present in the original. Nearly every pubescent species, too, has its
smooth variety, which in some cases succeeds better than the original. The
fact that we do not see the mutation is no argument that it has not taken
place. Plain wheat, for example, has certainly arisen from the bearded, which
is to be regarded as the original stock. See further in the chapter on Mutation.

2 It may be added that the common orange easily escapes from cultivation,
in which case most of the trees bear insipid fruit, a few bitter, and occasionally

ORIGIN OF CULTIVATED FRUITS 275

names for some of them being found in the Sanskrit. The mild
acid varieties seem to have first attracted attention, the sweet
orange seemingly being the most recent of all, though now the
most popular in the West, where it has been greatly improved.

The banana (Musa sapientum), literally the food of the wise,
from an old tradition that this was the special food of the
Hindu philosophers. Its near relative, the plantain, sometimes
reckoned as a separate species, Mtisa paradisiaca, is larger
and coarser than the banana and generally requires cooking
for the best results.

The banana is without doubt native to the lower regions of
southeastern Asia and the outlying islands, where it has been
cultivated from antiquity. It was early known to the Greeks,
Latins, and Arabs as an Indian fruit, but the only ancient
names are in Sanskrit. The ancient Egyptians and Hebrews
did not know the plant, which Candolle considers to be a sign
that its cultivation cannot be regarded as remote.

Whether the banana is also native to Africa and the New
World is yet a matter of uncertainty. It was certainly known in
both continents at a very early day, and Stanley, as well as earlier
explorers, found the banana and the plantain both cultivated
and wild in the depths of the Kongo. The plant almost never
bears seeds.

The pineapple {Ananassa sativa). Without doubt this is truly
an American plant, native in the regions of the Orinoco and
northward. It was of course unknown till the discovery of the
New World, but has since spread rapidly over all subtropical
countries. It is clearly the finest tropical fruit when had at its
best, which is rare.

The grape. The cultivated grape of to-day comes from two
distinctly different sources, one the Old World, the other
the New.

one bears fruit of a good quality. The writer speaks from experience in this,
for it was his habit in riding over the mountains in eastern South America to
depend upon the wild orange for refreshment. The trees bearing good fruit
could readily be told at a distance.

270

DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS

The grape has been cultivated from ancient times and is
beUeved by many to be our oldest fruit. Noah, good old man

Fig. 48. The wild persimmon of the South. With attention it
might rival the grape in valuable varieties

as he was, lost his head over the fruit of the vine,^ and he has
been followed by many less worthy successors.

The Phoenicians are credited with the introduction of the
grape into Europe, where more than fifteen hundred varieties

1 Genesis ix.

ORIGIN OF CULTIVATED FRUITS 277

are grown, all descended from a single species, Vitis viiiifera,
supposed to be indigenous to Asia.

Curiously enough, these European cultivated varieties failed
utterly to grow in the eastern United States, ^ and our early fore-
fathers suffered much extremity, or thought they did, by their
inability to grow the European grape for wine, some good chron-
iclers going so far as to express a doubt if the Creator had ever
intended such a country for human habitation.

Failing 2 in the attempts to grow the European grapes, the
settlers naturally turned their attention to the native species that
clambered everywhere and that early attracted attention. Thus
Captain John Smith, for example, in the quaint language of the
times (1607- 1 609) writes of the wild grapes of Virginia that they
*' climbe the toppes of the highest trees" ; and speaking of the
fruit, he says, " They bee fatte and the iuyce thicke : neither
doth the tast so well please when they are made in wine." ^ From
which we see that the attention of the time was mainly upon wine.

''America is the land of the grape," says Bailey,^ who lists no
less than twenty-two distinct species and thirteen varieties of
grape native to the United States. The principal species are the
following, which, directly or through their hybrids with the Old
World wine grape, V. vinifera, have given rise to our common
American cultivated varieties, distinguished by their round, juicy,
many-seeded fruits as distinct from the fleshy European (now
California) species :

I . Vitis rotundifolia, the muscadine or Southern fox grape.^
Delaware to Florida and west to Kansas and Texas, and parent
of the large musky Scuppernong.

1 This was due, as we now know, to certain diseases that killed the leaves,
probably the downy mildew and black rot. These grapes have been since grown
out of doors in California for raisins, wine, and for shipping, and they appear
on our markets now as the thick-meated " California grapes."

2 The story of this failure is finely told by Bailey in his " The Evolution of
our Native Fruits."

3 " Evolution of our Native Fruits," p. 4.

4 Ibid., pp. 98-117.

^ Called by Gray, Vitis vulpina.

278 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS

2. Vitis labrusca, the northern fox or skunk grape. New
England and southward to Georgia along the Allegheny high-
lands. Parent of the Catawba, Concord, Isabella, Worden, and
most of our commonly cultivated varieties.

3. Vitis vtdpina, the river-bank or frost grape, commonly
known as Vitis riparia. It is the common wild grape of the
northern states east of the Mississippi, frequently hybridizes
naturally with V. labnisca eastward, where they overlap, and is
the parent of the Clinton, Elvira, Pearl, and others.^

The unrivaled Catawba was found wild in the woods of
extreme western North Carolina in 1842. It is the great
grape wherever it can be grown, and its seedling, the Diana,
is an oldtime favorite.

A year later the Concord was discovered among some wild
grapes that sprung up about the residence of Ephraim Bull at
Concord, Massachusetts. The writer saw the original vine a
few days ago (August, 1908) still growing by the little old home-
stead, just beyond the homes of Hawthorne and the Alcotts.

From the Concord have sprung the Worden, Moores Early,
Pocklington, Eaton, and Rockland, of which the two first are
famous. In the same way the Clinton and many other strains
have come directly from the wild within the lifetime of men
yet living, and many, by hybridizing, have given rise to yet other
successful varieties. In this way have all the varieties of grapes
grown in eastern or middle United States been produced directly
from the wild and within the last generation.

The thick-meated European grapes were found to succeed in
California, and they now reach our tables from the fruit stands.
However high in quality and however valuable for raisins or for
wine, I am sure that the average palate prefers the juicy varieties,
developed though but recently from the native stock of the
American forest.

1 The student is urged to pursue further in the admirable work of Bailey,
"Origin of our Native Fruits," pp. 1-126, the history, characteristics, and
development of this greatest of American fruits.

ORIGIN OF CULTIVATED FRUITS 279

The strawberry. The United States, like Europe from Lap-
land to the Mediterranean, was well stocked with wild straw-
berries. A good start had been made in an early day toward
developing garden varieties from this source, and the writer has
eaten freely in boyhood of such varieties.

Before final results were at hand, however, and before the
best use had been made of this native stock, ^ a new species from
Chile had been introduced into England, and from there to this
country, where it has become the parent of all commercial varie-
ties, wholly displacing the races developed from the native stock.
The Chilean species extends into our own western mountains, but
fails to succeed when brought directly from there to the East.

The strawberry is widely scattered over the earth, a fact due
partly to its cosmopolitan character and partly to the facility
with which birds scatter the seeds, in which respect this fruit
is equaled by few and surpassed by none.

Notwithstanding all this, the strawberry is one of the newest
of additions to cultivated plants, dating in all probability not back
of the fifteenth century. It is difficult to realize how so luscious
a fruit should be so long neglected, except upon the assumption
that in its present form it has not long existed.

The raspberry. Europe supports many varieties of Rubus
idcBus, both red and white, but, like the grape, they all proved
unsuited to American conditions, and, as before, recourse was
had to the wild. Naturally the early efforts were directed to the
red berries, following the European type, and later to the black
caps, which upon acquaintance immediately took the lead.

The real cultivation of native American raspberries dates,
according to Bailey,^ not earlier than i860, when L. F. Allen
of New York sent out two red varieties, Allen's Red Prolific
and Allen's Antwerp, which were "merely accidental varieties of

1 It is an open question whether the wild red strawberry of the eastern
United States is identical with the Fragaria vesca of Europe. The difference is
evidently slight, but enough to lead some botanists to give it a separate name, —
sometimes Fragaria virginiana and again Fragaria americana.

2 " Evolution of our Native Fruits," p. 286.

28o DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS

the wild raspberry of his locaHty." ^ By 1867, however, the red
varieties had increased to six, the black caps had been intro-
duced under eleven varieties, one of which was an albino, and a
series of purple varieties numbering five had come into favor.

The black cap has always been the American favorite among
raspberries, and it is right that the name of the man to whom
we owe its introduction should become a household word wherever
the raspberry is eaten. Ic was Nicholas Longworth^ of Cincin-
nati, who, as Professor Bailey puts it, was " the same prophetic
spirit that put American grape growing on its feet." The first
of these black- cap varieties was the Everbearing, which, by
Mr. Longworth's account, he " found" in Ohio in full fruit and
brought it into his garden, where it supplied his table " from
the beginning of June until frost."

The story of the raspberry is a story for the poetic historian,
as it is also for the student of natural history and the farmer ;
indeed, the story of the civilization of any great fruit or food crop
is a chapter in the history of creation that any man may be
proud to write and grateful to read. The temptation to dwell on
fascinating details is almost overpowering, there is so much of
human life and divine inspiration in it all ; but it is quite aside
from the present purpose, which is only to give a hasty outline
sketch supplementary to the chief purpose in hand.

The blackberry. This close relative of the raspberry is not
cultivated in the Old World, and nothing in the genus Riibus is
mentioned by Candolle. The blackberry grows wild in Europe,
but, like our huckleberry, has never been considered as a candi-
date for cultivation.

It gave much trouble in America before it would yield to the
blandishments of the cultivator. Though flourishing remarkably
in the wild over nearly all the eastern United States both north
and south, it has been so shy of civilization that Professor Card
has called it the " gypsy of the fruits," a name it undoubtedly

1 " Evolution of our Native Fruits," pp. 287-289.

'^ The great-grandfather of the present Congressman Longworth.

ORIGIN OF CULTIVATED FRUITS 28 1

deserves, for much labor and expense were bestowed on these
shade-loving berries before varieties were developed that would
thrive at all in the open.

But the troubles of the cultivators were fully equaled by those
of the botanists, who have floundered in a sea of confusion in the
endeavor to fix lines of classification that would separate and de-
scribe all the forms of these exceedingly variable races, which
range all the way from the high-bush blackberry of the northern
"clearings " to the creeping dewberries of the open, both of which
have finally yielded to cultivation and given useful varieties, but
only well within the recollection of men yet in middle age.

This confusion grew worse instead of better till Bailey (1898)
untangled the matter and proposed names and descriptions,
which, for the first time, fix the botanical character of our native
and cultivated blackberries.^

The cultivated varieties trace to two strains of a single species,
though many others are described and named, merging by almost
imperceptible gradations into the dewberries. These two strains
are the following :

1. Riibus nigrobacciis, the Rubus villosns of many. This is
the common high-bush, long-clustered, rich-flavored blackberry
of the northern woods and clearings, extending as far south as
the mountains of North Carolina and as far west as Kansas.
The fruit of this species is the best of all the blackberries, and is
preferred by all lovers of fruit, from birds on the one hand to
bears and boys upon the other. It was exceedingly shy of civi-
lization, but has consented to produce a few varieties, of which
the Taylor and Ancient Britain are considered by Bailey to be
examples.

2. Riibjis nigrobacciis var. sativus, the short-clustered, loose-
seeded blackberry of the open fields. Strangely enough, however,

1 This matter is discussed here at some Httle length, partly to fix names,
but more especially to show the student the troubles of classification,
troubles that arise by the overlapping of closely related strains. The full
text of Bailey's excellent work will be found in " Evolution of our Native
Fruits," pp. 366-385.

282 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS

it is this wonderful '' nondescript " berry, with its inferior fruit,
that yielded best to cultivation and has given us the most of
our cultivated varieties, of which the Snyder and Kittatinny
are examples.^

Besides these there is the so-called " white blackberry"
{Rtibus nigrobacctis var. albintis), an albino variety midway
between the main strain and the sativus, with the habits of
growth and quality of fruit closely resembling the former, but
of especially fine quality .^

The melon. Dear to the heart and palate of every boy is
the melon. It exists in two well-marked and distinct species,
belonging even to different genera :

I. The muskmelon, or cantaloupe {Cucumis meld), is certainly
native both in Beluchistan and westward, on the coast of Guinea,
and in central Africa and eastward. In the wild the fruit varies
from the size of a plum to that of a lemon, and is commonly
extremely insipid. This generally unpromising character is
probably responsible for the fact that the melon was not culti-
vated in early times ; indeed, it was not until our own day that
really excellent varieties have been established, — all of which
goes to show the power of cultivation and selection to work im-
provement, and that the wild plant often gives little indication
of its hidden possibilities, which quickly appear when once they
are unlocked and liberated by generous opportunity.

1 A few cultivated varieties, like the Wilson and Rathbun, are considered
to be hybrids between the blackberry and the dewberry {Rubus villosus).

2 Burbank is erroneously credited with having " produced" the white black-
berry in the sense of having created it. Now the white blackberry is a strain,
probably a mutant, that frequently arises, as every woods boy knows, and
Mr. Burbank's " production " consists in cultivating one or more of the many
thousands of such " sports " produced by this great berry.

The student should understand that nearly everything has its albino (white)
strain, which is altogether likely a mutant from the main stock. Thus we have
the white blackberry, strawberry, raspberry, currant, apple, as well as the white
rabbit, deer, horse, cow, pig, sheep, and so on, of practically all species. With
the sheep, the white is the favorite stock, which was also true of the pig till
the opening up of the corn belt and the origin of the Poland China breed,
which happens to be black.

ORIGIN OF CULTIVATED FRUITS

283

2. The watermelon {Citrullus vulgaris). For once there is
no doubt of nativity. The watermelon is a characteristic contri-
bution of the dark continent, and our colored brother evidently
comes honestly by his natural appetite for this luscious fruit.
It belongs to central Africa on both sides of the equator, where
Livingstone '' saw districts literally covered with it, and the sav-
ages and several kinds of wild
animals eagerly devoured the
wild fruit," ^ which is some-
times, but not generally, bitter.
This fruit was certainly culti-
vated by the ancient Egyptians,
but there is no proof of antiquity,
either botanical or philological,
except in northern Africa.

It would be interesting, in-
deed, to follow the futures of
other wildlings under civiliza-
tion, such as the cucumber, the
pumpkin, and the squash, but
it is a long story and would
lead us far afield. Inasmuch
as our chief purpose here is to
indicate rather than to exhaust
a field, we must content our

Fig. 49. The huckleberry — good
enough in the wild

selves with a hasty glance at what is really a fascinating prospect.
Miscellaneous fruits. There are, however, a number that
merit further study. The gooseberry and the currant, both in-
troduced from Europe, and both also wild over extensive areas
of our own country,^ and which have furnished cultivated varie-
ties, are other examples of the fact that many species are

1 " Origin of Cultivated Plants, p. 263.

2 The writer as a boy knew two kinds of wild gooseberry, the " prickly "
and the plain, both growing freely in the woods of Michigan. The latter was
often brought into the gardens of the pioneers and successfully cultivated,
furnishing, in some cases, the principal fruit of the pioneers.

284 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS

wide-ranging races that may be, and likely are, subjected to
cultivation at very many independent centers.

Added to these are many undeveloped possibilities in unculti-
vated fruits, like the huckleberry and the cranberry, which latter
is coming into semidomestication in order to furnish the demand
that goes with the Thanksgiving turkey.

The tropics afford an almost endless variety of fruits, some of
them only just rescued from the wild. The forests and jungles
of such formative regions as the Amazon valley abound in fruits
as well as nuts in the greatest profusion and of the greatest
variety. The world is being ransacked now for new and valuable
varieties, either cultivated or wild, and very much of the work
of domestication of plants is still going on even in our own day,
though it is a question whether a new animal will ever be added
by domestication. It looks rather as if in respect to animals we
should be restricted in our possessions to what we can achieve
out of the materials already in hand.

CHAPTER XXI

ORIGIN OF FARM AND GARDEN VEGETABLES AND
MISCELLANEOUS PLANTS

The potato • The sweet potato • Miscellaneous tubers • Edible roots • The
onion • The beet • Manioc, or mandioca • The turnip • Miscellaneous roots •
Vegetables cultivated for their foliage • Cabbage • Celery • Lettuce • Aspara-
gus • Plants cultivated for beverage • Coffee • Tea • Mate • Plants grown
for sedative effect • The poppy • Coca • The betel • Tobacco • Fiber plants •
-Cotton • Flax • Hemp • Ornamental plants • Weeds

Many plants have a habit of sending out not only the upright
stems that bear leaves, but also others that run along just above
or just beneath the surface of the ground, and, by branching or
sending out roots at the joints here and there, are able to prop-
agate themselves without the help of seeds. Strawberries do
this with '' runners" above the ground. Quack grass and Canada
thistle do the same, except that the stems run just below the sur-
face, a habit which makes these two weeds peculiarly difficult to
eradicate. Blue grass has the same habit, but, being valuable in-
stead of worthless, we count the custom a virtue and not a vice.

In a few plants these underground stems greatly thicken, and
these thickened stems, called tubers, are favorite foods, generally
as a source of starch.

4^ The potato {Solarium tuberosum). The most common and the
most valuable of all plants of this order is the ordinary Irish
potato. Its name " Irish " is a misnomer, ^ as it is truly an Ameri-
can product, its wild progenitor still being common along the
coast of Chile and in the higher elevations to the northward.
Several closely related species abound in the highlands of South
and Central America as far north as Mexico, and a not distantly

1 Bestowed from the fact that the cessation of the periodic famine in Ireland
dates from the introduction of the potato.

285

286 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS

related species is found as far north as Colorado, — the Solatium
rostratum}

At the discovery of America the potato was cultivated all
along the Andean slopes and plateaus as far north as Granada.
It was introduced into Europe by the Spaniards, and very likely
from them it made its way to the United States, as it seems
not to have been known to the Indians until after the discovery
of this country by Europeans. ^

This tuber is one of the cheapest and most important foods
for man, and it has done more, perhaps, than any other plant to
make famine in the western world practically impossible. It
made little headway, however, until recent years, for as late as
the time of the American Revolution but two varieties were
known in England, a white and a red. Latterly, however, great
improvements have been made, largely within the lifetime of
men yet living. Varieties are now counted by the hundreds, and
any number of new ones can be produced at will, so freely does
the species vary.

The sweet potato {Ipomoea batatas). This is not a true potato
at all, but belongs to the morning-glory family, whereas the
potato belongs to the nightshades ; moreover, the fleshy parts
that are eaten are true roots, and not thickened underground
stems or tubers like those of the true potato.

The origin of the sweet potato is mysterious. It was un-
doubtedly found in cultivation in the New World. Moreover, of
the fifteen nearest related species, all are found wild in America,
eleven of these are found only there, while four are found also in*
the Old World. It was certainly not known in Europe until after

1 This native sand bur was the original food plant of the Colorado potato
beetle, but when the potato reached that region the insect at once adopted it
as a new host, and it spread rapidly eastward over all the United States,
illustrating how quickly a wildling may change its habits and greatly profit by
a new food plant.

2 Sir Walter Raleigh is often credited with having introduced both tobacco
and potatoes into England, having brought them from Virginia, but this does
not mean that the potato was native there, nor that this was the first introduc-
tion into Europe.

MISCELLANEOUS PLANTS 287

the discovery of America. It was unknown to both the Romans
and the Arabs, and was not introduced into Egypt until about
a hundred years ago. On the other hand, Chinese literature
mentions the cultivation of this plant as early as the second or
third century, all of which is argument for an Asiatic origin.

In the opinion of the writer these are ample grounds for
assuming a double origin of this most useful plant. The simi-
larity between the flora of eastern Asia and certain portions of
America is one of the best known facts in natural history. So
valuable a plant as the sweet potato would attract attention any-
where, for all the preparation needed is roasting. Accordingly it
would at once be brought into cultivation by any progressive race,
and there is every reason why widely diffused species of this kind
should be domesticated not once but many times, and their culti-
vation spread not from one but from many centers. I am of the
opinion that it is both unnecessary and unscientific to assume a
single origin for every cultivated plant. Species like the oaks,
growing widely scattered over the earth without the aid of man,
are proof of the wide diffusion of certain races by wholly natural
causes. Given now this same wide diffusion with evident natural
value to man, and we have all the conditions necessary for do-
mestication and cultivation, not once merely, but wherever they
and the needs of man come together. A good example of all
this in modern days is ginseng, which is native in Arabia,
China, and the United States. The Chinese prize this plant for
its medicinal properties, and as their supply is short, we are not
only hunting it out of the wild in the eastern hills of our own
country, but are beginning to cultivate it for export.

Miscellaneous tubers. True tubers are not plentiful. The
onion is not a tuber, being the thickened base of the upright
stem. Beets and carrots are not tubers, being the true top or
main root greatly enlarged. Peanuts are not tubers but true
seeds, this plant having the curious habit of thrusting its blos-
soms, after fertilization, into the earth to mature and ripen the
seed under ground. •

2SS DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS

Edible Roots

As has been indicated, certain roots have the habit of storing
large quantities of starch, which greatly enlarges their size and
acts as food material later on. Such plants commonly act as
biennials in the temperate climate, growing and storing food
one year, and sending up a stem and producing seed the next.^

The onion (Allium cepct). This savory root has been known
from early times. The Greeks and Romans knew several varie-
ties, as did the Egyptians. It has also long been cultivated in
the various countries of southern and eastern Asia, under vari-
ous names that have no similarity or other sign of philological
connection.

The species has been found wild in western Asia in various
localities, ranging from Palestine to Beluchistan, a fact which
seems to satisfactorily settle its eastern origin.

On the other hand, both the onion and the leek were found
common in America, all of which seems to be a puzzle to Can-
dolle, who remarks that species of the genus Allium are exceed-
ingly rare in America. On this point he could not have been
well informed, for if the number of related species be few, they
are certainly well and widely diffused. All pioneers will testify
to the early abundance of the common wild leek {Allmm tricoc-
cum), to the great detriment of the butter of those days,^ as we
of our own time know the wild onion of various species to be

1 In tropical countries this seed production need not wait till the second
year, but may proceed directly upon the accumulation of sufficient store of
food for the rapid maturing of seed. Here all distinctions as to annual, bien-
nial, and perennial disappear. The century plant has the same habit, except
that the food material is stored in the leaves rather than in the roots, and very
much more than a single year is required. It does not require, however, as the
name indicates, a full century before bloom. In most cases it is probably nearer
a decade.

2 The cows running in the woods and wild pastures ate freely of the wild
leeks, which often were so abundant as to give a grassy-green appearance
to the forests in the early spring. This so strongly affected the milk and
butter with the disagreeable flavor of the leek as often to make the product
unsalable, indeed uneatable.

MISCELLANEOUS PLANTS 289

widely scattered. Professor Asa Gray lists seven species of
Allium as growing wild in northeastern North America, only
one of which is naturalized from Europe. May not this also be
a case of multiple domestication, if the writer may coin a term
to indicate what he believes to have been a common thing in
the early days of civilization 1

^ The beet {Beta vulgaris). Whether as a garden delicacy or a
food for stock, this plant is no mean addition to our gardens
and fields, but as a sugar plant it ranks as of prime importance.
It is the one plant that has made sugar production possible in
the temperate zones. Beginning with but 3 or 4 per cent of
sugar, by careful breeding it has been raised in sugar content
till whole fields average 14,. and single specimens have been
found above 25 per cent. This achievement is mainly the re-
sult of German enterprise, and shows what science can do
when applied to the ordinary affairs of life.^

The beet yet grows wild in the Canary Islands and all along
the Mediterranean, and as far east as Persia and Babylon. It
was cultivated by the Greeks and Romans, though its varieties
have been greatly increased of late ; indeed, it seems to be one
of these fortunate species that is growing in favor, just as salsify
is as certainly dying out.

Manioc, or mandioca {Manihot utilissima). This plant, of great
significance in tropical agriculture, would not be mentioned here
except for the fact that it is almost undoubtedly another of the
American, and therefore comparatively late, contributions to the
agriculture of the world, and except for the further fact that it
is the source of our tapioca of commerce. The arguments for
its western nativity lie in the fact of its comparatively ancient
cultivation in tropical America, and the further fact that the

1 This was not the result of accident, but of deliberate determination. The
Germans felt the disadvantage of depending solely on the tropics for their
sugar supply, and government chemists were set at work to discover, if possible,
a sugar-bearing plant that could be raised in their latitude. The result is that
beet sugar can compete in price with the cane, and the quality is not only
equal but identical.

290 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS

forty-two known species of Euphorbiacea, to which the manioc
belongs, are all found wild in South America, and not one of
them in the Old World, ^ than which no argument is better.

The turnip {Brassica campestris). This old favorite of the
gardens, the white turnip, and the English field swede are but
different varieties of the same species. When we attempt to
study them from our present standpoint they introduce some
interesting facts, not the least of which are the puzzles of the
botanist.

The turnip is closely related to the cabbage and cauliflower
(Brassica o/eracea), the mustard, both black and white (Brassica
nigra and Brassica alba), and the rape (Brassica napus), so
valued for sheep pasturage as to constitute in many sections a
staple farm crop.

All these plants grow wild in southern Europe and Siberia,
and are especially abundant in England, Holland, Sweden,
Denmark, and Finland. They have evidently but recently been
introduced into cultivation, which tallies well with their half-
wild behavior and their tendency to develop markedly distinct
varieties, as do also cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, kale, and
broccoli, — all from cabbage.

Miscellaneous roots. The list of roots is not long, but is
hardly of sufficient importance for detailed treatment in our
limited space. The carrot and the parsnip are both of conse-
quence, and their wild congeners are common in Europe. The
radish, though a garden vegetable, is better able to maintain
itself in the wild than is almost any other of our cultivated
plants, as any one can testify who has had occasion to deal with
it as a weed. Like the horse-radish, it is a native of Europe,
where it has long been cultivated. Salsify, which grows wild
along the Mediterranean, is less cultivated than formerly, and
seems to be one of those plants that is being abandoned and
destined to extermination unless it can maintain itself in the
wild, which it seems well able to do.

1 " Origin of Cultivated Plants," p. 62.

MISCELLANEOUS PLANTS 29 1

Vegetables cultivated for their Foliage

^ Cabbage (Brassica oleracea). Together with its mutants, cauH-
flower, kale, and Brussels sprouts, etc., this useful vegetable
holds a prominent place in our garden agriculture. Cabbage
grows wild in the south of England and Ireland, the Channel
Islands,^ and in Denmark. Its common name is Slavic (Kab),
its botanical is Keltic (Bresic), and all facts go to show that its
introduction, which is recent, proceeded from northwestern
Europe as a center.

Celery (Apium graveolens). According to Candolle, this plant
grows wild in damp places over a wide area, extending from
Sweden to Algeria, Egypt, and Abyssinia, and in Asia from the
Caucasus to Beluchistan and the mountains of British India. It
has been known to cultivation since early times, being mentioned
in the " Odyssey."

Lettuce (Lactuca scariola). This plant, like parsley, grows
wild in southern Europe, though it has a wider range, extending
from the Canary Islands to Mesopotamia. It was formerly,
indeed until recently, raised in the gardens by thick seeding,
each plant sending up a few broad and tender leaves. Latterly^
however, this plant is being raised in a headed form like cabbage,
with many close-clustered leaves that become well bleached and
very tender.

Asparagus. This genus includes something like one hundred
and fifty species, mostly native of southern Africa and southern
Europe. When used at all, it is largely for ornamental planting,
but the common garden species {Asparagits officinalis) has been
cultivated for at least two thousand years for its young and
succulent stems. These stems are small in the wild, seldom

1 Darwin states that in the island of Jersey the cabbage sends up a stalk to
the height of sixteen feet. He adds that the woody stems are not infrequently
ten to twelve feet in height, and are used for rafters. This makes it easy to
see how the Brussels sprouts have developed, and to understand that many of
the C'Tuciferce are developed into trees. The cabbage itself is indeed a heavy
shelter of broad leaves growing on a greatly shortened stem.

292 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS

equaling a half inch in diameter, but in cultivation they some-
times attain the size of the wrist, with high flavor.

To these might be added such garden crops as spinach, S
native of Persia, and cultivated from ancient times ; New Zea-
land spinach ( Tetragonia expansa), which is our only contribution
from that far-off country, brought to Europe by Captain Cook ;
chicory, which is wild over most of Europe and in western and
northern Asia, and, in both the cultivated and wild state, used as
a substitute for coffee ; and many others, mere mention of which
would too greatly extend our space.

Plants cultivated for Beverage

Coffee {Coffea arabica). This favorite of the Anglo-Saxon race,
and of western races generally, grows wild in Abyssinia, where
it has been used from time immemorial. This does not mean,
however, that it has been long under cultivation, but rather that,
like ginseng, it was hunted wild and reduced to cultivation only
when the native supply failed. The name indicates Arabian
origin, but while a fine quality is produced in that country,^
it has never been found truly wild. A larger and stronger-grow-
ing coffee is the Liberian coffee {Coffea liberica), native in that
country and subjected to the same uses.

Tea (Thea sinensis). Whether green or black, the species is
the same. Its use is of very ancient date in China, being men-
tioned as early as 2700 b.c. It is used both wild and cultivated
in Cochin China, and the best of authorities believe it to be
a native of the " mountainous region which separates the plains
of India from those of China." ^

Mate {Hex paraguayensis). This plant (pronounced md'td) is a
native of southeastern South America, where it has long been

1 This is the true Mocha, a small-grained, very fine-flavored variety. The
common Mocha of commerce grows, however, on the same tree with other
coffee. It is simply the small round bean growing alone at the end of the twig,
whereas most of the berries grow as twins, with the flat surfaces together,
forming a kind of bean. Even this Mocha is superior to other berries on the
same tree. 2 " Origin of Cultivated Plants," p. 1 19.

MISCELLANEOUS PLANTS 293

used, as has tea in China, where the wild product is yet more
common than the cultivated, and where great quantities are con-
sumed, as well as exported to Europe, under the name of Para-
guay tea. It makes a pleasant drink as the writer remembers it
in its own country, though, of course, to one not "to the manner
born " it would be considered inferior to either tea or coffee.

Plants grown for Sedative Effect

In all countries and times the human animal seems not to
have been quite happy till he could either find or produce some-
thing that would work directly upon his nerves. And he does
not seem yet to have entirely freed himself from what must,
when considered in the light either of philosophy or of evolution,
be regarded as a confession of weakness.

This craving exhibits itself in two directions : first, as a
stimulant, exciting the nerves to unusual activity, giving an arti-
ficial exhilaration, followed in ex-treme cases by a deep lethargy,
largely destitute of consciousness ; and second, something to
act as a sedative, dulling the sensibilities and giving a kind of
soothing freedom from care which is akin to sleep, yet without
loss of consciousness.

Alcohol is the one great stimulating agent, and, as was once re-
marked by the late Professor Steel, who had traveled extensively
among the primitive peoples of many lands, no tribe is too stupid
or too lazy to make at least a dilute form of alcohol by the fer-
mentation of some kind of vegetable juice.

For the sedative effects resort is had to a variety of vegetable
substances, which are widely cultivated and will continue to be,
at least until man pretty generally learns that it pays best in the
long run to maintain a normal existence day by day, and not to
tamper with the most delicate part of his anatomy, the nerves.^

1 It may be remarked in passing that the basis of all patent medicines is
either a stimulant by the use of alcohol, or a sedative through some of the
well-known materials that have a more or less pronounced stupefying effect.
If the nerves are stimulated, the patient seems to have a new lease of life ; if

294 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS

The poppy (Papaver somniferum). This is the plant cultivated
for its opium, which is extracted from the milky juice, and from
which morphine is made. Opium produces a deliciously dreamy,
half-conscious state, out of which the subject wakens with re-
luctance, and into which he is most likely to again submerge
himself. If he surrenders to this most dangerous drug for a
little time, he is most likely to turn out an " opium fiend," with
little prospect for the future, for experience shows that these
unfortunate people will practice the cunning of the keenest
lunatic to possess themselves of the drug, when once the habit
is formed.

The opium poppy is native not to China but along both
shores of the Mediterranean, where it has long been cultivated,
even since the time of the lake dwellers. It spread into Arabia
and India, where it is eaten, not smoked, and finally reached
China in the neighborhood probably of 1 500 a.d. These people,
with malevolent instinct, learned to smoke the drug, in which
way an exceptionally strong effect is produced. To the credit of
modern China the cultivation of this poppy is being prohibited.

Coca {Erythroxylon coca). This is a narcotic plant growing
wild in the Peruvian Andes, and is chewed by the natives with
a little unslaked lime, producing an effect akin to that of opium.
The alkaloid cocaine, which is extracted from the leaves, is, like
opium and morphine, a dangerous drug, except in the hands of
the physician, and is subject to the same abuse.^ The leaves
are exported in enormous amounts (over thirty million pounds a
year), more than ten million people being addicted to the use
of the drug. It is not yet cultivated, so far as is known to the
writer, but a demand like this will bring cultivation when the

they are dulled by a sedative, he feels soothed : in either case he feels better
and buys more medicine. Such medicines are known to the trade as " re-
peaters," because the more is used the more is needed, and the appetite once
formed is insatiable.

1 Some of the so-called " celery compounds," patent medicines of a few
years ago, depended for their effect upon cocaine as does one of the popular
and widely advertised drinks of to-day.

MISCELLANEOUS PLANTS 295

wild supply begins to fail,^ unless in the meantime humanity
learns wisdom.

The beteL Closely akin to the above in effect is the betel nut,
almost universally chewed by the natives of the Malay Peninsula
and the outlying islands, as is evidenced by their blackened teeth.
The first effect is exhilarating, but later lethargy ensues. Habitual
users become toothless, often as early as at twenty-five years of age.

Tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum). This plant serves exactly the
same purposes to its users as does the opium poppy, the coca,
or the betel nut to theirs, except that it is less powerful. It is
chewed, smoked, and snuffed ; indeed, human ingenuity seems
to be exhausted in devising ways of bringing these sedatives in
contact with the nerves. As in the case of opium, smoking
undoubtedly succeeds in producing more complete effects than
does either chewing or snuffing.

The plant is undoubtedly of American origin, though this
particular species is not known in the wild state. However, it
was unknown to the Old World until after the discovery of
America, Arabians and others having drafted into service other
similar narcotic plants from their own country, all of which were
abandoned upon the introduction of the new, stronger, and
therefore favorite, American narcotic.

When this country was discovered the South American In-
dians both chewed and snuffed,^ while from the Isthmus north
they smoked, but neither chewed nor snuffed. The use of to-
bacco was therefore well-nigh universal in America before it was
known in the Old World. Added to this is the fact that of the
fifty species of Nicotiana, only two are found in the Old World,
leaving to America the undoubted, if doubtful, honor of supply-
ing to the world this new and now widespread narcotic favorite.

1 The coca must not be confused with the useful cacao ( Theobroma cacao),
native of the Amazon, from the seeds of which chocolate and cocoa are made,
nor must it be taken for the equally useful coconut, which is the product of a
palm that is native to the tropical regions of both the Old and the New
World, and that seems to have had a wider range formerly than now.
2 Except those of the La Plata district, which had no narcotic.

296 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS

Fiber Plants

The need for clothing, covering, and cordage, beyond the
available supply of wool or other animal fiber, early led to the
cultivation of plants that bore fiber, either about the seed or
along the stem. Of these we have quite a variety.
^ Cotton (Gossypium herbaceum). This is the one great fiber
plant of the world. The seed is surrounded by a fine, strong
lint, from three fourths to two and one-half inches in length. It
is not so fine as silk, nor so lustrous, and, not being a contin-
uous thread, it is not so strong, but it is an excellent substitute ;
especially is this true of some of the new long-staple varieties.

Common cotton is native to southeastern Asia, whence its cul-
tivation seems to have spread to China in the ninth or tenth cen-
tury, to Greece and southern Europe in the time of Alexander,
and thence to the United States, where it arrived something less
than one hundred and fifty years ago.

Aside from all this, supported alike by botany, history, and
philology, the remarkable fact remains, that when America was
discovered cotton was found under cultivation in the West India
Islands, from Mexico to Peru, and in Brazil. The species is con-
sidered to be different {Gossypium barbadense), though it has
the same yellow flowers with red centers. The famous sea-
island or long-staple cotton is considered as a strain of G. bar-
badense, rather than of G. herbaceum, which, however, covers
the principal varieties of cotton raised in the states.

With us the cotton plant is a true annual, requiring reseeding

every year, but in warmer countries it may live for a number of

years, attaining of course considerable size.^

^ Flax (Linum usitatissimum). This is a most useful plant, now

grown not only for its fiber, but for its seed, as a source of oil ^

1 At Para the writer " climbed into " a " cotton tree " about twelve feet high
and several years old.

2 This is the linseed of commerce, used in painting. Linseed meal is the
ground seed before the oil is extracted, while linseed cake and oil cake are the
residue after the oil is removed. Both are excellent feed.

MISCELLANEOUS PLANTS 297

and as stock food. Flax has been grown from the greatest an-
tiquity. It was a great crop with the Hebrews and the ancient
Hindus. The mummy wrappings of the Egyptian tombs were
of hnen. Flax has been found in a tomb of ancient Chaldea,
older than the city of Babylon. The lake dwellers of Switzer-
land made use of it, and all evidence goes to show that it is one
of the oldest of cultivated plants, hoary with age as it is heavy
with honors.

The flax of the lake dwellers appears to have been the peren-
nial species, Limim aiigustifolmfn, which is yet wild in the
Mediterranean region, but was later displaced by the annual
species, Linnm icsitatissimum, which has been cultivated for at
least four or five thousand years, and is yet wild in the regions
lying between the Persian Gulf and the Black Sea. Manifestly
this is a species that has been so long cultivated, and one that
so easily maintains itself in the wild, that its present range would
be little guide to its original habitat, so that we cannot say with
confidence to what country we owe the debt for flax.

Hemp (Cannabis sativa). This strongest of the fiber plants
exists in two distinct forms, the male and the female, each a
separate plant. This, too, is an old friend, dating as a culti-
vated plant from at least 1500 b.c, or before the Trojan War.
Hemp is wild from southern Russia in the neighborhood of
the Caspian, eastward to the desert of Kirghiz, beyond Lake
Baikal.i

Besides the cotton, flax, and hemp we have jute, an old but
not ancient fiber plant, widely scattered over the world ; also
manila, which is the trade name for the product of a fibrous
banana of the Philippines, Musa textilis. Besides these, the
coconut palm yields a fiber much used in the manufacture of
matting, and that of another palm is used for the coarser quali-
ties of brushes, and occasionally for brooms.

1 The student is referred to " Origin of Cultivated Plants " and to con-
temporaneous literature for further information upon our fiber plants, whose
history is one of the most interesting chapters in the development of the wild.

298 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS

Ornamental Plants

Along with utility goes beauty, and the human animal has
long surrounded his habitation with such flowering and other
ornamental plants as happened to strike his fancy. The list is
indefinitely long and the species are exceedingly varied. Whether
for flower, fruit, or foliage, the number and variety of plants
that minister to beauty are bewildering, and both are being
rapidly increased by breeding.

Here is a world of beauty and of interest, not only to the
artist but to the breeder, into which we can only glance and
catch a glimpse in passing. We all admire the grace and fra-
grance of the rose, as well as its variety of form and color,
ranging from the stately American Beauty of the hothouse to
the delicate moss rose of the garden. This admiration is in-
creased to wonder when we realize that they have all developed
from the common wild rose that clambers over our fences and
brightens our hedges in all the eastern United States, and that
planted a multitude of bright eyes in the western prairies long
before man was there to see.^

There is no more fascinating work than the bringing out of
new forms of plant beauty, and young men and women who
have the artistic sense developed, will find much in this realm
of nature to stimulate to still further appreciation of the beau-
tiful, and to show what may be done with the materials which
the All- Father has placed in our hands, and the great principles
with which he has taught us to work.

Weeds

Just as certain species of animals have attached themselves
to us and our affairs without invitation, and continue without
welcome, so have certain species of plants invaded our fields
and gardens, quite against our desires and greatly to our

1 Showing the mistake of the notion that all beauty was made expressly for
man's enjoyment.

. MISCELLANEOUS PLANTS 299

inconvenience and expense. We call them weeds. ^ Their domes-
tication is not of our choosing but of their own making, and it
has come about in any case because their individual require-
ments fitted almost perfectly with those of some other species
which we were trying to domesticate and produce in quantity.

For example, chess {Bromus secalinus) is a plant having the
same soil and seasonal requirements as wheat, though of a dis-
tinctly different genus. The seeds are near enough alike, how-
ever, to be separated with great difficulty ; hence some chess is
nearly always sown with wheat. The chess plant is much hardier
and much more prolific ^ than the wheat, so that if the two were
thrown together, the chess would soon take the ground.

As it is, if anything happens to the tender wheat, as in winter
killing, there is generally enough chess at hand to make a
showing, even with less than two hundred spears to the stool,
giving rise to the absurd belief that the wheat has '' turned
to chess."

Every weed has some natural advantage, generally arising in
the crop conditions with which it most easily and naturally
associates, and here is the vulnerable point of attack for its
extenuation.

Weeds, of course, came out of the wild, and most of them
still exist in the wild in the same regions which they infest as
weeds. This is true of such as cocklebur, Canada thistle,
quack grass, ^ etc., but others, like cockle and chess, are not found
except in association with growing crops ; that is to say, they
do not readily escape from cultivation.

The behavior of a weed upon first introduction is little indi-
cation of what its subsequent history will be. Wild lettuce, for
example, spread over the western United States a few years

1 The best definition for a weed is " a plant out of place."

2 The writer once counted two hundred and four species of chess, each
bearing a full " head " and all springing from a single root originating from a
single seed.

8 These weeds, however, are not, in most cases, truly wild, but have been
" introduced " and afterwards have " run wild " like feral animals.

300 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS

ago, to the great alarm of everybody, and nothing seemed able
to stop it ; but in a very few years it subsided, apparently of its
own accord, and within a few more was practically extinct.
Others " come and go " with the seasons, just as white clover
is abundant in a wet season and then unnoticed perhaps for
many years. It is still there, but is inconspicuous until condi-
tions become peculiarly favorable. Still others are always with
us, always a menace to the valuable cultivated crops, always
ready to rob the land of its fertility and its moisture, and the
farmer of his profits.

Exercises. 1. Make a list of wild plants in the neighborhood that are
related to domesticated species.

2. Discuss the question whether any wild plants of the neighborhood
could be made of economic use to man.

3. Make a herbarium of leguminous plants, taking care to preserve the
flowers, the fruits, and the tubercles. These latter are difficult to secure.
If the plant is pulled up, they will be stripped off. The plant should be
carefully lifted out with a spade, and the earth should be removed by gentle
shaking and then washing in a generous quantity of water.

4. Secure a small plat or field near the schoolhouse on which to raise
different varieties for study and comparison.

5. Compare the pistils and the pollen-bearing parts of corn with those of
Kafir corn, clover, beans, and alfalfa.

6. Raise some hemp, in order to note the difference between the " male "
and the " female " plants. If hops are grown in the neighborhood, note
same with them.

7. Write the story of the domestication of the American grape. For data
see " Evolution of our Native Fruits," by Bailey.

8. What wild plants in your neighborhood might, in your judgment, make
valuable plants in cultivation ?

References. 1. " Origin of Cultivated Plants " (from which the data of
this chapter are largely taken). De CandoUe.

2. " Animals and Plants under Domestication " (Vol. I, chaps, ix and x).
Darwin.

3. " Evolution of our Native Fruits." Bailey.

4. A good collection of seedsmen's catalogues, which is the best guide
to new things.

APPENDIX

STOCK JUDGING

To be able to tell at sight a good animal from a poor one is a valu-
able qualification to the farmer and indispensable to the breeder. It
is also good practice for the student to learn the art.

The best way to begin this study is by directing the attention
definitely to different '' points " of the animal and give them careful
study, one at a time, guided in this study by some recognized standard.

Such a standard is known as a " scale of points," and to facilitate
this work some standard scales are given for the students' use.

In practice these score cards should be copied on sheets and each
animal " scaled " separately, after which the markings of different
animals should be compared, as should also the work of different
students upon the same animal.

It is for this work that the neighborhood supply of animals should
be drawn upon, and perhaps nothing that can be done will tend so
much to bring the school and the community together.

Besides all this there is no better way of teaching accuracy of obser-
vation than by the means of stock judging. The untrained observer
sees the animal as a whole, but the student soon learns to separate
the individual into separate characters or '' points," and he learns
thereby not only to recognize details, but also that animals, like people,
may be partly good and partly bad. Altogether this line of work is
commended to the schools and to the young.

301

302

DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS

STUDENT'S SCORE CARD

HEAVY HORSES

Scale of Points

Age, years

Height, hands

Weight, pounds

Score according to breed

Form, according to breed, broad, massive, — symmetrical .

Condition, carrying a good amount of firm flesh . . . .

Quality : bone moderately heavy, clean, firm, and indicating
sufficient substance, tendons well defined, hair and skin
fine

Color, according to breed

Temperament, quiet, yet energetic

Head, medium in size, not coarse, and showing character ,

Muzzle, fine, nostrils large ; lips thin, even ; teeth sound .

Eyes, large, full, bright, clear

Forehead, broad and full

Ears, medium size, pointed ; well carried and not far apart

Keck, medium length and clean-cut, well muscled; crest
well developed and nicely arched ; throat latch fine ; wind-
pipe large ; tapering from shoulder to head, and head
attached at proper angle

Shoulder, oblique, long, smooth, and covered with muscle
extending into back ; withers well finished at the top

Arm, short, well muscled, elbow lying close to the body .

Fore legs, viewed in front, a perpendicular line from the
point of the shoulder should fall upon the center of the
knee, cannon, pastern, and foot. From the side a per-
pendicular line dropping from the center of the elbow-
joint should fall upon the center of the knee and pastern
joint and back of the hoof

Forearm, heavily muscled, long, wide, and tapering from
elbow to knee

Knees, large, clean, wide, straight, and strongly supported

Cannons, short, wide, clean ; tendons large, set well back,

not tied in below the knee

Fetlocks, wide, straight, strong, free from puffiness . . .

Pasterns, strong, of medium length, angle with the ground

Feet, straight, medium size, even ; horn dense ; frog large,

elastic ; bars strong ; sole concave ; heel wide, high ;

hoof head large

Chest, deep, low, girth large, width of breast in proportion

with other parts

Ribs, long, well sprung

Back, straight, short, broad, well muscled

Loin, wide, short, thick, and neatly joined to hips . . .

Perfect
Score

Student's
Score

STANDARD SCALE OF POINTS

303

STUDENT'S SCORE CARD (Continued)
HEAVY HORSES (Continued)

Scale of Points

Perfect
Score

Student's
Score

Corrected
Score

2
2

4
6

Hips, smooth, level, width in proportion with other parts,
but not prominent

Tail, attached high, well carried, well haired with straight
and not too coarse hair

Thighs, long, muscular, thick and wide, well muscled over
stifle

Quarters, heavily muscled, deep

Hind legs, viewed from behind, a perpendicular line from
the point of the buttock should fall upon the center of
the hock, cannon, pastern, and foot. From the side a per-
pendicular line from the hip joint should fall upon the
center of the foot and divide the gaskin in the middle ;
and a perpendicular line from the point of the buttock
should run parallel with the line of the cannon ....

Gaskins or lower thighs, wide, well muscled

Hocks, large, strong, clean, and well defined, free from

puffiness, coarseness, and curbiness

Cannons, short, broad, flat, and clean, tendons large and set

back, not too light below the hock

Fetlocks, large, wide, straight, strong, free from puffiness
Pasterns, strong and of medium length and obliquity, not

so great as fore pasterns

Hind feet, straight, medium size, even ; smaller, and not so
round as fore feet ; horn dense ; frog large, elastic ; bars
strong ; sole concave ; heel wide, high

Action, walk elastic, quick, balanced ; step long ....

Trot rapid, straight, regular, high ; should not wing or

roll in front, or go wide or too close behind . . .

Total

100

Animal , . .
Student's Name

Date

304

DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS

STUDENT'S SCORE CARD
LIGHT HORSES

Scale of Points

Perfect
Score

Student's
Score

Corrected
Score

Age, years

Height, hands

Weight, pounds

Score according to breed

Form, according to breed, symmetrical, smooth, and stylish

Condition, carrying a moderate amount of firm flesh . .
Quality: bone clean, firm, and indicating sufficient sub-
stance ; tendons well defined ; hair and skin fine . . .

Color, according to breed

Temperament, spirited, yet docile

Head, not too large and showing character, features well de-
fined and regular

Muzzle, fine, nostrils large ; lips thin, even ; teeth sound .

Eyes, large, full, bright, clear

Forehead, broad and full

Ears, medium size, pointed, well carried and not far apart
Neck, rather long, clean-cut, well muscled, tapering from

shoulder to head and head attached at proper angle ;

crest well developed and nicely arched ; throat latch fine ;

windpipe large

Shoulder, oblique, long, smooth, and covered with muscle

extending into iDack; ; withers well finished at the top

Arm, short, well muscled, elbow lying close to the body .

Fore legs, viewed in front, a perpendicular line from the
point of the shoulder should fall upon the center of the
knee, cannon, pastern, and foot. From the side, a perpen-
dicular line dropping from the center of the elbow joint
should fall upon the center of the knee and pastern joint
and back of the hoof

Forearm, well muscled, medium length, wide and tapering
from elbow to knee ^

Knees, large, clean, wide, straight, and strongly supported

Cannons, medium length, wide, clean ; tendons large, set

well back, not tied in below the knee .

Fetlocks, wide, straight, strong, free from puffiness . . .

Pasterns, strong, of medium length, angle with the ground

45°

Feet, straight, medium size, even ; horn dense ; frog large,

elastic ; bars strong ; sole concave ; heel wide, high ; hoof

head large

Chest, deep, low, girth large, width of breast according to

class

Ribs, long, well sprung

Back, straight, short, broad, well muscled ......

Loin, wide, short, thick and neatly joined to hips . . .

STANDARD SCALE OF POINTS

305

STUDENT'S SCORE CARD (Continued)
LIGHT HORSES (Continued)

Scale of Points

Perfect
Score

Student's
Score

Corrected
Score

Underline, long

2
2

4
2

4
4

Hips, smooth, level, width in proportion with other parts.

Croup, long, wide, muscular, not drooping

Tail, attached high, well carried, well haired with straight
and not too coarse hair ....

Thighs, long, muscular, thick, and wide, well muscled over
stifle

Quarters, heavily muscled

Hind legs, viewed from behind, a perpendicular line from
the point of the buttock should fall upon the center of
the hock, cannon, pastern, and foot. From the side, a per-
pendicular line from the hip joint should fall upon the
center of the foot and divide the gaskin in the middle ;
and a perpendicular line from the point of the buttock
should run parallel with the line of the cannon ....

Gaskins or lower thighs, long, wide, well muscled . . .

Hocks, strong, clean, and well defined, free from puffiness,
coarseness, and curbiness

Cannons, medium length, broad, flat, and clean ; tendons
large and set back ; not too light below the hock . . .

Fetlocks, large, wide, straight, strong, free from puffiness

Pasterns, strong and of medium length, obliquity not so
great as fore pasterns

Hind feet, straight, medium size, even ; smaller, and not so
round as fore feet ; horn dense ; frog large, elastic ; bars
strong ; sole concave ; heel wide, high

Action, walk elastic, quick, balanced ; step long ....

Trot rapid, straight, regular, high ; should not forge,
wing, or roll in front, or go wide or too close behind

Total

100

Animal . . .
Student's Name

Date

3o6

DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS

STUDENT'S SCORE CARD
DAIRY CATTLE

Scale of Points

INDICATING MILKING QUALITIES, THIRTY POINTS

Udder, capacious, full and attached high at the back,
extending well forward ; quarters evenly developed,
preferably free from fleshiness (omit for male) . . .

Teats, uniform, of convenient size and length, placed
well apart, of nearly equal diameter from base to point,
free from lumps, warts, extra orifices, or leakage
throwing clean streams with reasonable pressure
(rudimentary in male)

Milk veins, large, tortuous, and much branched ; milk
wells large

Rump, broad at both hip and pin bones, indicating pelvic
capacity

Temperament, inherited tendency of dairy function . .
INDICATING FEEDING QUALITIES, THIRTY POINTS

Barrel, long, deep, full at paunch, with plenty of space
between last rib and point of hip

Bone, medium, as indicated by clean face and legs with
smooth joints, short cannons, and long, slim tail. Ex-
treme fineness undesirable

"Withers, narrow, smooth over top, not higher than rump

Muzzle, wide, full Hps

Face, broad between eyes, flat or dished, not bulging .

Eye, full, clear, quiet, set well forward, not in side of head

Neck, medium to thin on top, and fair length (thicker in
males and crested with age)

Throat, clean

Dewlap, light

Handling, skin medium thick, mellow, loose, not hard or
papery ; hair fine and soft, not wiry ; inside of ears

furry ; switch long and silky

INDICATING CONSTITUTION AND GENERAL HEALTH,
TWENTY-FIVE POINTS

Chest, deep and full, showing plenty of lung capacity,
wide on the floor and full at the elbows

Legs, straight, neither knock-kneed nor sickle-hocked .

Back, straight, sometimes drooping with age . . . .

Pasterns, short, strong, and upright .......

General appearance, thrifty and vigorous

Carriage, active but not nervous

SYMMETRY, FIFTEEN POINTS

The proper balance between the different parts of the
animal's body, including general neatness and smooth-
ness of form ; in males greater relative development
of shoulders, neck, and head

Perfect
Score

Student'
Score

Total

Other particulars in which cows vary are npt listed above
because their connection with milk production is ques-
tionable, or at least not understood ; for example, the
escutcheon, rudimentaries, color, etc.

Weight, estimated . . pounds ; actual . . pounds.

Animal ... .
Student's Name

Date

STANDARD SCALE OF POINTS

STUDENT'S SCORE CARD

BEEF CATTLE. BREEDING STOCK

307

Scale of Points

Perfect
Score

Student':
Score

Corrected
Score

GENERAL APPEARANCE, FORTY POINTS

Weight, estimated . . pounds; actual . . pounds.
According to age

Form, straight top line and underline, deep, broad, low-
set, stylish

Quality: firm handling; fine hair; pliable skin: dense,
clean bone ; evenly fleshed without ties or rolls . . .

Condition, deep even covering of firm flesh, especially
in region of valuable cuts

HEAD AND NECK, SEVEN POINTS
Muzzle : mouth large ; lips thin ; nostril

Eyes, large, clear, placid

Face, short, quiet, expressive ....

Forehead, broad, full

Ears, medium size, fine texture . . .
Neck, thick, short; throat clean . . .

large

FORE QUARTERS, NINE POINTS

Shoulder vein, full

Shoulder, covered with flesh, compact on top, snug

Brisket, advanced, breast wide

Dewlap, skin not too loose and drooping ....
Legs, straight, short, arm full ; shank fine, smooth

BODY, THIRTY POINTS

Chest, full, deep, wide ; girth large ; crops full . .
Ribs, long, arched, thickly fleshed ......

Back, broad, straight

Loin, thick, broad

Flank, full, even with underline

HIND QUARTERS, FOURTEEN POINTS

Hip, smoothly covered ; distance apart in proportion

with other parts

Rump, long, wide, even ; tail head smooth, not patchy .

Pin bones, not prominent, far apart

Thighs, full

Twist, deep, plump, indicating fleshiness

Legs, straight, short, shank fine, smooth

Total

Animal . . - .
Student's Name

Date

:o8 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS

STUDENT'S SCORE CARD
BEEF CATTLE. MARKET STOCK

Standard of Excellence

pounds ; actual

pounds.

Weight, estimated

According to age

Form, straight top and underlines, deep, broad, low-set,
compact, symmetrical

Quality: hair fine; bone fine but strong; skin pliable;
mellow, even covering of firm flesh, especially in region
of valuable cuts ; absence of ties and rolls

Condition, prime ; flesh deep ; evidence of finish especially
marked in cod, at tail head, flank, shoulder, and throat ;
absence of bunches, patches, or rolls of fat . . . . .

Head, clean, symmetrical ; quiet expression ; mouth and
nostrils large ; lips moderately thin ; eyes large, clear,
placid ; face, short ; forehead broad, full ; ears medium
size, fine texture

Neck, thick, short, tapering neatly from shoulder to head;
throat clean

Shoulder vein, full

Shoulder, well covered with flesh, compact

Brisket, full, broad, but not too prominent ; breast wide .

Dewlap, skin not too loose and drooping

Chest, deep, wide, full

Crops, full, thick, broad

Ribs, long, arched, thickly fleshed

Back, broad, straight, thickly and evenly fleshed . . . .

Loin, thick, broad, thickness extending well forward . .

Flank, full, low, thick

Hips, smoothly covered ; width in proportion with other
parts, but not prominent

Rump, long, level, wide and even ; tail head smooth, not
patchy

Pin bones, not prominent; width in proportion with other
parts

Thighs, full, fleshed well down to hock

Twist, deep, full ; purse in steers full

Legs, straight, short ; arm full ; shank fine, smooth . . .

Total

Perfect
Score

Animal . . .
Student's Name

Student's
Score

Date

STANDARD OF F:XCELLENCE

30.9

STUDENT'S SCORE CARD

FAT HOGS. MARKET STOCK

Standard ok Excellence

Perfect
Score

Student's
Score

Corrected
Score

Weight, pounds

Form, long, deep, broad, low-set, symmetrical, compact,
standing squarely on legs

7
12

10
2

0.5

5
12

4
0.5

Condition: thrifty, well fleshed, fat but firm

Quality: hair fine ; bone fine but strong ; skin smooth ; even
covering of firm flesh, free from lumps and wrinkles

Style, attractive

Action, spirited, straightforward, regular, free and easy

Constitution, chest capacious; brisket advanced and low ;
flanks full and well let down

Coat, abundant, fine, straight, bright, smooth, evenly dis-
tributed, lying close to body

Snout, medium length, not coarse

Eyes, full, bright, not obscured by wrinkles

Face, broad between eyes and ears, smooth

Ears, fine texture, medium size, neatly attached ....

Jowls, smooth, firm, medium size, not pendulous ....

Neck, short, deep, thick, joining head to shoulders smoothly

Shoulders, deep, full, compact, smooth, not too heavy . .

Back and loin, long, broad, strong, even width, thickly
and evenly fleshed

Sides, long, deep, full, even width, free from wrinkles and
flabbiness ; ribs long, carrying fullness well down . . .

Belly, straight, even, not flabby, proportionate in width

Rump, long, wide, even width, thickly and evenly fleshed,
rounding from loin to root of tail, not too drooping . .

Hams, broad, especially at upper end, deep, full, well
fleshed and plump, not too fat

Legs, straight, strong, tapering, medium length, set well
apart ; bones smooth ; joints clean ; pasterns upright ;
feet medium size, not sprawling, squarely placed . . .

Tail, medium in size and length, smooth, tapering, not set
too low ...

Total

100

Animal . . .
Student's Name

Date

The preceding score cards are made from the standpoint of utiHty and
without reference to breed characters. They are in actual use for class work.
In addition to this some breeders' associations have adopted a special scale of
points designed to bring out the distinctive characters or points in the breed.
Two of the many are here given as samples. It will be noticed that in these
latter much attention is given to matters of appearance as distinct from utility.

3IO DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS

SCALE OF POINTS FOR JERSEY COWS

HEAD, SEVEN POINTS COUNTS

A. Medium size, lean ; face dished, broad between eyes and narrow between

horns 4

B. Eyes full and placid ; horns small to medium, incurving ; muzzle broad, with

muscular lips ; strong under jaw 3

NECK, FIVE POINTS

Thin, rather long, with clean throat ; thin at withers 5

BODY, THIRTY-THREE POINTS

A. Lung capacity, as indicated by depth and breadth through body, just back of

fore legs 5

B. Wedge-shaped, with deep, large paunch ; legs proportionate to size and of fine

quality . .' 10

C. Back straight to hip bones 2

D. Rump long to tail setting and level from hip bones to rump bones .... 8

E. Hip bones high and wide apart; loins broad, strong 5

F. Thighs flat and well cut out 3

TAIL, TWO POINTS

Thin, long, with good switch, not coarse at setting-on 2

UDDER, TWENTY-EIGHT POINTS

A. Large size and not fleshy 6

B. Broad, level, or spherical, not deeply cut between teats 4

C. Fore udder full and well rounded, running well forward of front teats ... 10

D. Rear udder well rounded, and well out and up behind 8

TEATS, EIGHT POINTS

Of good and uniform length and size, regularly and squarely placed 8

MILK VEINS, FOUR POINTS

Large, tortuous, and elastic 4

SIZE, THREE POINTS

Mature cows, 800 to 1000 pounds 3

GENERAL APPEARANCE, TEN POINTS

A symmetrical balancing of all the parts, and a proportion of parts to each other,
depending on size of animal, with the general appearance of a high-class
animal, with capacity for food and productiveness at pail 10

Total 100

SPECIAL SCALE OF POINTS 311

SCALE OF POINTS FOR HOLSTEIN-FRIESIAN COWS

Points

Head, decidedly feminine in appearance ; fine in contour 2

Forehead, broad between the eyes, dishing 2

Face, of medium length ; clean and trim, especially under the eyes, showing facial

veins ; the bridge of the nose straight ; the muzzle broad 2

Muzzle, broad with strong lips i

Ears, of medium size, and fine texture; the hair plentiful and soft; the secretions

oily and abundant i

Eyes, large, full, mild, bright 2

Horns, small, tapering finely towards the tips, set moderately narrow at base, oval,

inclining forward, well bent inward, of. fine texture, in appearance waxy ... i

Neok, long, fine and clean at juncture with the head, free from dewlap, evenly

and smoothly joined to shoulders 4

Shoulders, slightly lower than hips, fine and even over tops, moderately broad and

full at sides 3

Chest, of moderate depth and lowness, smooth and moderately full in the brisket,

full in the fore flanks (or through the heart) 6

Crops, moderately full 2

Chine, straight, broadly developed, open 6

Barrel, wedge-shaped, well rounded, with a large abdomen, trimly held up (in

judging the last item age must be considered) 7

Loin and hops, broad, level or nearly level between the hook bones, level and
strong laterally, spreading from chine broadly and nearly level, with hook
bones fairly prominent 6

Rump, long and high, broad with roomy pelvis, nearly level laterally, compar-
atively full above the thurl 6

Thurl, high, broad 3

Quarters, deep, straight behind, roomy in the twist, wide and moderately full at

the sides 4

Flanks, deep, comparatively full 2

Legs, comparatively short, clean and nearly straight, wide apart and firmly and

squarely set under the body ; feet of medium size, round, sblid, and deep . . 4

Tail, large at base, the setting well back, tapering finely to switch, the end of the
bone reaching to hocks or below ; the switch full 2

Hair and handling, hair healthful in appearance, fine, soft, and furry ; the skin of
medium thickness and loose, mellow under the hand ; the secretions oily,
abundant, and of a rich brown or yellow color 8

Mammary veins, very large, very crooked (age must be taken into consideration in
judging of size and crookedness), entering very large or numerous orifices,
double extension, with special developments such as branches, connections, etc. 10

Udder, very capacious, very flexible ; quarters even ; nearly filling the space in the
rear below the twist, extending well forward in front, broad and well held up ;
teats well formed, wide apart, plumb, and of convenient size 12

Teats 2

Escutcheon, largest, finest 2

Perfection 100

GLOSSARY

In the following glossary of terms used in the text and the references no
attempt is made to furnish exact definitions. The purpose has been rather to
supply the secondary-school student with an adequate working idea of the
meaning of the terms as commonly employed, maintaining at the same time
scientific accuracy, without aiming to attain that exhaustive discrimination
which might be demanded by the highly specialized student.

Accessory chromosome. That particular chromosome which, at least in certain
species, has its mate in the female but not in the male, and which is therefore
supposed to be associated with the determination of sex.

Acquired character. Modification of hereditary characters due to environ-
ment or habits of life.

Adaptation. The " fit " which is brought about between the environment and
the species. See Natural selection and Survival of the fittest.

Advanced registry. A registry based on performance and not simply upon
pedigree.

Ancestry. Those members of past generations that are related to any given
individual by descent.

Average deviation. A mathematical expression measuring variability obtained
by averaging the deviation of all individuals from the mean of the race or
population.

Breed. A definite variety or strain of animal bred to a special type.

Breeding. The intelligent combining of known blood lines in either animal
or plant production. Specifically, also, the mating of animals.

Biophere. A term used by Weismann (pronounced Visemdn) to denote the
smallest conceivable unit of living matter.

Castration. The removal, by the knife, of the testicles of the male, thus pre-
venting reproduction.

Character. Any trait, faculty, or physical feature of the individual or species
that can be identified and more or less accurately described.

Characters, dominant. The more prominent of two mutually exclusive char-
acters, and which therefore characterize three fourths of the offspring of hybrid
parents.

Characters, latent. Those racial characters that remain undeveloped and
therefore unnoticed in a given individual, but which may appear in his
descendants because belonging to the ancestry.

Characters, recessive. The less conspicuous of two characters which are
mutually exclusive, and which therefore characterize but one fourth of the
offspring of hybrid parents.

312

GLOSSARY 313

Chromomeres. See Chromatin granules.

Chromosomes. The dots, rods, rings, or other bodies that exist in definite
numbers in the nucleus and that derive their name from the readiness with
which they assume color under the various staining reagents employed by
biologists to bring out structural differences under the microscope.

Chromatin granules. The minute granular masses of which the chromosomes
appear to be composed ; synonymous with chromomeres.

Cross breeding. Synonymous with crossing.

Crossing. The fertilizing of one species by the male of another species,
race, or variety. Synonymous with cross breeding.

Cytoplasm. The cell contents that surround the nucleus.

Degenerate. The individual which has inherited in strong degree the worst
characters of his race with few or none of the best, though he may have one
or more exceptional faculties.

Determinant. Such an association of ids (Weismann) as may be able to fix
the character of a part in its development.

Development. Progressive change ; specifically the appearance of racial
characters in the individual as growth proceeds.

Differentiation. The appearance of distinctly differing organs and parts
during and after embryonic development.

Dominant characters. See Characters, dominant.

Dwarf. The individual in which the process of growth has been arrested
abnormally early. See Giant.

Embryo. The fertilized ovum after growth and differentiation begin.

Embryonic development. Growth and differentiation of the embryo.

Environment. The conditions of life as a whole, both good and bad, that sur-
round the individual or the species, by which it may be either benefited or
oppressed, but with which it must live and compete.

Eugenics. The doctrine that human beings should be well born by attention
in marriage to the well-known facts of heredity.

Evolution. The theory that species originate by development from other
and preexisting species by means of more or less gradual modifications either
through crossing or the influence of the environment, or both; over against the
older theory that each species was specially and separately created, and that
it remains unchanged and unchangeable.

Fetus. The more or less perfectly developed embryo before birth.

Gamete. The fertilized ovum or ovule.

Genetics. The science of breeding from the standpoint of the transmission
of hereditary characters without regard to the influence of environment.

Germ plasm. Reproductive or sex cells in general, without reference to
sex.

Germinal matter. Synonymous with germ plasm.

Giant. The individual in which cell division and growth have proceeded
beyond the normal. See Dwarf.

314 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS

Grading. Breeding scrub or unpedigreed stock to registered males.

Heredity. The transmission of racial characters from ancestry to offspring.

Hybrid. The offspring of hybridization, carrying the blood of two or more
species or races.

Hybridizing. That kind of crossing in which the male and female are of
different species or of distinctly different races.

Id. A term used by Weismann to denote an orderly and definite association
of biopheres operating together towards the determination of a definite
character.

Latent characters. See Characters, latent.

Mammals. Certain species of higher animals in which the fertilized ovum is
retained and embryonic development takes place inside the body of the mother
until birth ; specifically, those species which suckle the young.

Maturation. The final stages of division in sex cells just before attaining the
conditions suitable for fertilization.

Mean. The average.

Mendel's law. The law which states the way in which racial characters will
be distributed among the offspring of hybrid parents.

Methodical selection. The imitation by man of the operation of natural selec-
tion as he attempts to secure the favorable development of especially desirable
characters in domesticated animals and plants.

Mimicry. The resemblance of one species to another or to some natural
object in such a way as to be protective against possible enemies.

Mitosis. The process of cell division in ordinary growth. See also
Maturation.

Mode. The most common or typical value of a racial character.

Mutant. An individual or strain essentially new and produced spontaneously
by nature thfough crossing, bud variation, or otherwise ; synonymous with the
older term " sport."

Mutation. The production of mutants or sports, which see.

Natural selection. The oppressive effect of the environment by which many
individuals are unable to endure, and which therefore operates to destroy a
large proportion of the race. Those which are able to endure the hard fea-
tures of the environment not only survive, but, prospering by other conditions,
are said to be selected in this natural way.

Nucleus. That part of the cell which contains the chromosomes, which
takes the lead in cell division, and which seems normally to be equally divided
between the daughter cells, whether in ordinary growth or in maturation.

Ovary. The organ in which the ova or female reproductive cells develop.

Oviporous. Said of species which lay eggs in which, like birds, the em-
bryonic development takes place outside the body of the mother by the
process of hatching.

Ovule. The female sex cell of the higher plants, which, upon fertilization by
the pollen cell, is capable of developing into a new plant.

GLOSSARY 315

Ovum. The animal female sex .cell, which, when fertilized by the male sex
cell, is capable of developing into a new individual. Plural, ova.

Pedigree. The ancestry of an animal or plant; especially the list of the
names and registry numbers.

Pedigree register. The official publication in which pedigrees are printed,
each breed having its own.

Physiological unit. A term used by Galton and others to denote those
ultimate particles of living matter that determine characters, covering the
same general conception that later was covered by Weismann with his more
minute distinctions of biopheres, ids, and determinants.

Pollen. The male sex cells of higher plants.

Pollen grain. A single cell of pollen.

Progression. Advance as measured by the ancestry.

Protective coloring. Any color effects which, by mimicry or otherwise, make
the animal less conspicuous.

Protoplasm. Living matter in general.

Pure breeding. Mating only registered animals together. Coming to be used
also in plant breeding.

Pure bred. An animal or plant whose ancestry is registered on both sides.

Recessive characters. See Characters, recessive.

Reduction. The halving of the characteristic number of chromosomes dur-
ing the process of maturation.

Registration. The filing for print with the officers of a breeding association
of the pedigree of a pure-bred animal.

Regression. The tendency of individuals toward the mean of the race,
whether the immediate parentage be better or inferior to the average.

Reversion. An instance in which the offspring resembles a remote ancestor
more closely than it does the immediate parent.

Score card. A scale of points upon which breeds or individuals may be
assessed and judged, character by character and point by point.

Scrub. An animal that has little or no pure blood in its ancestry.

Selection. In general, the limiting of reproduction to certain favored indi-
viduals, either by nature or by man.

Selection, methodical. The selective process as carried on by man in order
to accomplish changes especially desired by him. See Methodical selection.

Selection, natural. The selective process as determined by the environment.
See Natural selection.

Spaying. The removal of the ovaries of the female, thus preventing
reproduction.

Spermatozoon. The male sex cell among higher animals. Plural, spermatozoa.

Sport. See Mutant.

Standard deviation. A mathematical measure of variability the same as
average deviation, except that the several deviations are squared in determin-
ing its value. See Average deviation.

31 6 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS

Survival of the fittest. The triumph of those individuals which are able to
compete successfully with the environment.

Testis. The organ in which the spermatozoa or male reproductive cells
develop. Synonymous with testicle. Plural, testes.

Thoroughbred. The name of the English running horse, often improperly
used for pure bred.

Thremmatology. The science and practice of improving domesticated ani-
mals and plants.

Throwing back. Synonymous with reversion.

Type. The most usual form of a character or of an individual ; also used for
the form that is desired in attempted improvement.

Unit character. The smallest element that physiologically tends to behave
more or less independently in the formation of plant or animal characters.

Unregistered stock. Animals that are undoubtedly of pure breeding but
whose pedigrees have been neglected or lost.

Use and disuse. The effect of use or disuse upon the development of an
hereditary character and its consequent retention or loss by the individual
or race.

Uterus. The female part in which the embryo develops and from which it
separates at birth. Synonymous with womb.

Variation. The fact that individuals of the same race and breeding are not
alike, but differ more or less among themselves.

Zygote. That portion of the gamete which determines a unit character.

INDEX^

Adaptation, accidental nature of, 8i ;
not perfect, 87

Advanced registry, 183

Agriculture, beginnings of, 23

Albino deer, 102*

Albinos, 151

Alfalfa, inoculation for, 261 ; origin
of, 260

Alpaca, 238

Ancestral heredity, law of, 166

Animals, as a means of recreation, 8 ;
as sources of clothing, 4 ; as sources
of food, 3 ; as sources of raw ma-
terial, 8 ; as sources of shelter, 5 ;
cost of maintaining, 35 ; domesti-
cated, need of improvement in, 35 ;
feral, 18; further improvement
needed, 37 ; medicinal properties
of, 9 ; not used in domestication,
30 ; service of, 28 ; service of, too
costly, 39 ; • systematic improve-
ment of, 178

Apple, origin of, 267

Arrested development, 132

Ass, 215 ; wild, 22

Aurochs, 16, 225, 226

Average deviation, 109

Aztecs, 247 ; hunts of, 24 ; semido-
mestication by, 24

Babiroussa, 233

Baby beef, 196

Bailey, " Survival of the Unlike," 97

Banff, head of herd at, 223*

Banteng, 221

Barley, origin of, 245

" Battle in the Meadows," 63

Beal, book on grasses, 255

Bean, origin of, 263 ; soy, 265

Beef, baby, 196

Betel nut, 295

Bighorn, 227

Bison, American, 31*, 55*, 223*

Bloodhound, 209

Blue grass, origin of, 254

Boar, wild, 16, 231

Bones, splint, 213

Bos frontosus, 225

Bos longifrons, 225

Bos primigeftus, 220, 224, 226

Breed, choosing of, 194; differences

slight, 195
Breeding, mixed, 186; power of, to

modify type, 93-95 ; pure, 187 ;

rate of improvement by, 190 ;

systems of, 186
Brilliant, 6*
Broom corn, 252
Buckwheat, origin of, 253
Buffalo Bill, 224
Buffalo, of Asia, 222; service of, 6;

water, 218*
Burro, 7*
Bush pig, 233

Camel, 238 ; service of, 7

Canada thistle, 299

Castle, W. E., work illustrated, 147,
149

Cat, European and American, 234* ;
origin of, 233 ; relatives of, 234 ;
true nature of, 235

Cattle, humped, 219; Indian, 219;
of Chillingham Park, 225; Short-
horn, 11; Teeswater, 178; wild
White, 225

Celery compound, 294

Cells, division of, 131

Character, single, variability of, 105

Characters, behavior of, in trans-
mission, 141 ; both good and bad
transmitted, 171; correlation of,
loi ; developed and latent, 100;
dominant and recessive, loi, 146;
how transmitted, 121 ; individual
possesses those of the race, 99 ■

1 References to figures are indicated by an asterisk, as 189*,
317

DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS

latent, loo; lost, 102; new, 103;
tend to combine in definite propor-
tions, 141 ; that do not blend, 144

Cherry, origin of, 271

Chess, 299

Chillingham cattle, 225

Chromosomes, 125, 127

Cipo, 25

Civilization, aided by slavery, 27 ;
requires domestication, 26

Clothing, sources of, 4

Clover, kinds of, 258;*origin of, 259;
sweet, 261

Coal, source of, 5

Coca, 294

Coefficient of variability, 112

Cocklebur, 299

Collie and coyote contrasted, 22*

Color, causes of, 77

Competition greatest between indi-
viduals of the same species, 61

Corn, broom, 252 ; Indian, origin of,
246; meaning of term, 246; polli-
nation of, injured by rain, 54

Corncob, hand-shaped, 138*

Correlation of characters, loi

Cotton, 296

Cow, choice butcher, 189* ; medium
butcher, 191*

Cowpea, 265

Coyote and collie contrasted, 22*

Creation not finished, 12

Crossing, 187 ; in plant improvement,
199; may give a pure race, 148

Curve of frequency, plotting of, 106

Domesticated animals and plants,
need of improvement in, 35

Domesticated races, come from the
wild, 14; variation of, 11 ; where
originated, 11 ; wild relatives of, 12

Domestication, a gradual process, 16,
32 ; first steps of, in the hunt, 24 ;
in civilization, 26 ; for additional
food, 22 ; for clothing and shelter,
25; for the hunt, 21; generally
means improvement, 14, 35 ; his-
tory of, how known, 17; often
means readjustment, 91 ; result of
necessity, 20 ; unwelcome, 239

Dominant characters, loi, 146; be-
havior of, 200

Dorset, 227*

Duck, origin of, 236

Dwarfing, 131

Environment, adds no unit charac-
ters, 174; and heredity, 171 ; func-
tion of, 173 ; mistaken estimate of,
171 ; modifications due to, 175

Eskimo dog, 216

Feeder, choice, 187*; inferior, 185*

Feral as distinct from wild, 18

Fertilization, 124

Festucas, the, 255

Fittest, survival of, 64

Flax, 296

Food, competition for, 54 ; sources of, 3

Frequency curve, plotting of, 106

Fruits, origin of, 267

Dachshund, 209

Dane, 210*

Darwin, "Origin of Species," 52

Davenport, C. B., " Statistical Meth-
ods," 120

Deer, albino, 102

Degeneracy, 163

Dehorning, 91

Design in nature, 77

Development, 128; arrested, 132;
going wrong, 130

Deviation, average, 109; standard,
III

Differentiation, 128

Dingo, 208*

Distribution, 106; sample of, 118,
119

Dog, contrasted with wolf, 22*; origin
of, 22, 207

Galla ox, 222

Galton, studies, 155

Gas, source of, 5

Gaur, 219, 220*

Gayal, 220

Giants, 132

Goat, origin of, 231

Goose, origin of, 236

Grading, 187

Grape, wild, 15*

Grasses, book on, by Beal, 225; mis-
cellaneous, 255; origin of, 254

Grouping, suggestions as to, 114

(irowth, 128; as determined by leaf
surface, 61 ; termination of, 129

Growths, abnormal, 140

Guinea fowl, 238

Guinea pigs, behavior of, under
Mendel's law, 147-149

INDEX

319

Hachwalt, " Dogcraft," 97

Hand, double, 136

Heat, sources of, 5

Hemp, 297

Hen, origin of, 235 ; relatives of, 236

Heredity, 1 54 ; and environment,

171; complex nature of, 154; in

stature, 1 56 ; law of, 1 66
Hibernation, 91
Hindu cattle, 219
Horn, compounded, 138
Horny growth, abnormal, on deer,

139*
Horse, evolution of, 214; origin of,

22, 211; prehistoric, 212*; service

of, 7
Hudson Bay Company, 25
Hybridization complicated, i 50

Improvement complicated, by hybrid-
ization, I 50 ; by crossing, i 50 ; by
domestication, 14; by selection,
198; herd and breed, 192; rate of,
190; rational, 193

Indian cattle, 219

Indians, dogs of, 22 ; food of, 23

Individual, a composite, 169; chance
of resembling a particular ances-
tor, 168

Inoculation, . described, 258 ; for
alfalfa, 261

Jersey, 47*, 226*

Kitchen middens, 17

Law of ancestral heredity, 166; of
the wild, 20

Legumes, inoculation for, 258;
special meaning of, 257

Lentil, 262

Lettuce, wild, 299

Life, abundance of, 50 ; length of, sig-
nificant, 69 ; sacred character of, 29

Light, sources of, 5

Llama, 238

Longevity, figure of Old Dick, 89

Lupine, 265

Man, dependence of, upon animal
labor, 6; primitive, disadvantages
of, 20 ; ingenuity of, 21; need for
clothing' and shelter, 25; need for
labor, 26

Market, knowledge of, necessary, 197

Market classes and grades, 196

Mean, 107

Measurements, suggestions as to

taking, 113
Medicines, sources of, 9
Mediocrity the common lot, 157
Mendel's law, few individuals pure

under, 149; illustrated, 147, 149;

of hybrids, 145 ; new races by, 148
Millet, origin of, 253
Mimicry, 75 ; butterfly and leaf, 76*
Monkeys, limit of intelligence of, 21
Mule, 216
Mumford, illustrations from, 185, 187,

189, 191, 192, 194, 196
Mutants, 150
Mutation, 150
Mystery confined to the unfamiliar, 78

Natural conditions, selective effect

of, 53
Natural selection, 63 ; always at work,

93 ; and progressive development,

83 ; effects of, 83 ; results of, not

always useful to us, 90
Nature, design in, i"] ; impartiality of.

Nectarine and peach, 151

Nitrogen, cost of, 258; secured by
legumes, 257

Numbers, significance of, 69 ; sugges-
tions as to, 117

Oats, origin of, 249

Offspring, compared with the parent,
154-160 ; compared with the parent
and remote ancestors, 166; excep-
tional, and its parentage, 163; not
like parent, 157; of exceptional
parent, 159

Old Dick, 89*

Opium poppy, 294

Orchard grass, 255

Ovule, function of, 125

Ovum, function of, 125

Ox, endurance of, 28 ; origin of, 219;
service of, 6

Pack mule, service of, 7

Parent, compared with offspring,
154-160; exceptional, his off-
spring, 159

Park cattle, 225

Passenger pigeon, 93*

Pea, origin of the, 264

320

DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS

Peach, and nectarine, 151 ; origin of,
271

Peacock, 238

Pear, origin of, 269

Pearson, work of, 167

Pedigree registers, 179

Penholder, 133

Petroleum, source of, 5

Pig, bush, 233 ; origin of, 231; rela-
tives of, 231

Pigeons, varieties of, 93-95

Pine, Jack, 54

Plant breeding, records in, 202

Plant improvement, Mendel's law in,
199

Plant lice, increase of, 51

Planting, systems of, 202

Plants as sources of clothing, 4 ; as
sources of food, 3 ; as sources of
heat and light, 5 ; as sources of
raw material, 8 ; as sources of
shelter, 5 ; cultivated, origin of,
241 ; domesticated, need of im-
provement in, 35; improvement
of, 198; medicinal properties of,
9 ; ornamental, 298

Plow, the primitive, 26

Plum, origin of, 269

Plumb, Types and Breeds of Farm
Animals, 97

Pointer, 209

Pollen, function of, 125

Poodle, 209

Poppy, opium, 294

Prairie chicken, 224

Prime steer, 194*

Progression, 160

Protective coloring, 74

Pure bred, 178

Python, legs of, 133

Quagga, 217

Recessive characters, behavior of,

loi, 146, 200
Redtop, origin of, 254
Registry, advanced, 183
Reversion, 163
Rice, origin of, 250
Room, competition for, 58
Rye, origin of, 249

Samples, suggestions as to taking,

117
Scrubs, 185

Selection, effect of, in making a " fit,"
85; effect of, upon the individual,
84 ; effect of, upon the species, 84 ;
improvement by, 198; individual
and the race contrasted, 85; our
standards different from those of
nature, 88 ; power of, to modify
type, 93-95 ; the individual and the
race, 66

Selective effect of natural conditions,

53
Setter, 209
Sheep, breeds of, 230 ; domesticated,

229* ; fat-tailed, 230 ; origin of,

227 ; relatives of, 229; wild, 228
Shelter, sources of, 5
Shorthorn cattle, origin of, 11
Silk, elongated, 123*
Sir Donald of Banff, 223*
Sires, source of, 192
Six Nations, 247 ; civilization of the,

17 ; food of, 23
Slavery, civilizing effect of, 27
Sorghum, origin of, 251 ; strains of,

251

Soy bean, 265

Spermatozoon, function of, 125

Splint bones, 213

Standard deviation, iii

Statistical studies, advantages of, 118

Stature, table of, 156

Steer, baby beef, 196*; common
rough, 192*; prime, 194*

Struggle for existence, 52

Sugar cane, origin of, 252

Survival of the fittest, 64 ; signifi-
cance of numbers, vigor, length of
life, 69 ; significance of weapons,
71

Swan, 238

Sweet clover, 261

Tarpan, 211

Thistle, Canada, 299

Thoroughbred, 179

Timothy, origin of, 254

Tobacco, 295

Toltecs, 247

Transmission, machinery of, 122; of
unit characters, 121 ; table of
stature, 156

Turkey, 224 ; origin of, 237 ; rela-
tives of, 237

Type modified by selection, 93

Types, 106

INDEX

Unit characters, 98 ; misplaced, 1 38 ;

species composed of, 98
Unused materials, 30
Urus, 225

Variability, coefficient of, 112 ; eco-
nomic significance of, 44 ; from
type, 109; in a single character, 47;
in milk production, 40; in pigeons,
93-95; of a single character, 105

Variation of domesticated races, 1 1

Vetch, 264

Vigor, significance of, 69

Wart hog, 233

Way of the wild, 50

Weapons, defensive, significance of, 7 1

Weeds, 29S

Weeping habit, 151

Wheat of lake dwellers, 265 ; ori-
gin of, 242 ; strains of, 243

Wild ass, 22

Wild boar, 16, 231

Wild grape, 15*

Wild lettuce, 299

Wild white cattle, 225

Wolf, contrasted with dog, 22 ; domes-
tication of, 13*, 21; of South Amer-
ica, 208

Women, primitive, hard lot of, 27

Yak, 221*
Zebra, 217

T'VWF.R^'

14 DAY USE

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Full text of "Domesticated animals and plants; a brief treatise upon the origin and development of domesticated races, with special reference to the methods of improvement"

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